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J UNITED STATES OF AME-RICA. ! 

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PROCEEDINGS AT SUFFIELD, 



SEPTEMBER 16, 185 8, 



ON THE OCCASION OF THE 



"»*£& 



OF THE DECEASE OF THE 



REV. BENJAMIN RUGGLES, 

First Pastor of the First Congregational Church. 



v> 



SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 

SAMUEL BOWLES AND COMPANY, PRINTERS, 
1859. 



PROCEEDINGS. 



A Hundred and fifty years had nearly expired since the 
decease of the first Pastor of the First Congregational 
Church, and no monument or stone had been set to indi- 
cate to the passer-by his last resting-place. The idea was 
conceived of erecting a suitable monument to his memoiy ; 
and on the 24th of May, 1858, the Church appointed Dea. 
Henry A. Sykes, Daniel W. Norton and Byron Loomls 
a Committee to Carry this into effect. 

At a subsequent meeting of the Church, a Committee on 
Inscriptions was appointed, consisting of the following 
individuals : Rev. Henry Robinson, Rev. Joel Mann, 
Rev. A. C. Washburn and Rev. J. R. Miller. 

It was felt to be desirable also to observe, in connection 
with the above, the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary 
of Mr. Ruggles' decease ; and a Committee of Arrange- 
ments was appointed to make suitable provision therefor. 
A Committee of Correspondence was also chosen; and the 
following is the Circular Letter which they issued : 

Suffield, Conn., July 27, 1858. 

Dear : The First Congregational Church in this town, 

having engaged in the enterprise of erecting a monument to the mem- 
ory of the first Pastor of this Church — Rev .Benjamin Ruggles, — and 
in connection therewith, of commemorating the one hundred and fiftieth 
Anniversary of his decease, September 10, 1858, N. S., have voted to 



invite the Citizens generally, and the Sons and Daughters of Suffield 

abroad especially, to join with us in the celebration of the day. 

The Committee of Correspondence, therefore, respectfully invite you 

and as many of your family as can make it convenient, to be present to 

participate in the exercises of the occasion. 

DANIEL HEMENWAY, 
DANIEL W. NORTON, 
HORACE SHELDON, 2d. 

The Anniversary fell on a very unpropitious clay, yet its 
celebration was very successful. 
The officers of the day were : — 

PRESIDENT, 

Dea. HORACE SHELDON, 2d. 

VICE PRESIDENT, 

ARTEMAS KING, Esq. 

COMMITTEE OF RECEPTION, 

Messrs. NELOND LOOMIS, GEORGE A. DOUGLAS, 
Dr. ARETUS RISING. 

MARSHAL, 

SIMON B. KENDALL, Esq. 



FIRST DIVISION. 

At 9 o'clock, the President called the people to order 
under the elm trees in front of the Ruggles and Devotion 
Parsonage Grounds, and as the morning was rainy, they 
adjourned into the tent which had been erected on said 
grounds, for the purpose of having a collation with which 
to close the services of the day, where the exercises were 
as follows : 

Invocation by Rev. Henry Cooley. 

Rev. A. C. Washburn read the following selected por- 
tions of Scripture : — 

" Lord, how manifold are thy works ! in wisdom hast thou made 
them all. Our fathers trusted in thee : they trusted, and thou didst 
deliver Ahem. We have heard with our ears, God, our fathers have 



told us, what work thou didst in their day, in the times of old. For 
they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did 
their own arm save them ; hut thy right hand, and thine arm, and the 
light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them. The 
Lord is our defence ; and the Holy One of Israel is our King. God 
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. 
Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all the inhabitants of the land. 
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, 
and their children to another generation. Know therefore this day. 
and consider it in thine heart, that the Lord he is God in heaven above 
and upon the earth beneath : there is none else. Thou shalt keep 
therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command thee 
this day, that it may go well with thee, and that thou mayest prolong 
thy days upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee. God 
be merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us : 
that our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth ; that our 
daughters may be as •corner-stones, polished after the similitude of a 
palace. Happy is the people that is in such a case ; yea, happy is 
that people whose God is the Lord. God shall bless us ; and all the 
ends of the earth shall fear him. Let the people praise thee, God ; 
let all the people praise thee. let the nations be glad, and sing for 
joy. Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee ? 
Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trustetb in thee." 

Rev. Henry Robinson offered the following Prayer : 

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, we are assembled in thy prov- 
idence, under circumstances of deep and solemn interest. We feel 
that the place where we stand is holy ground. Here was the dwelling 
of thy servant, under whose ministrations a church of Christ was first 
planted in this town. Here he gathered around him his beloved fami- 
ly and experienced the joys and sorrows of earth. Here he erected an 
altar to thy name, and prayed, and labored, and wept for the souls com- 
mitted to his care. Here his successor in office passed through similar 
scenes of labor and trial ; and from this consecrated spot, we doubt 
not, they went up to dwell with thee in that house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens. We thank thee for their holy and 
bright example. We thank thee for the good they accomplished 
during their lifetime, and for the good that has come to succeeding gen- 
erations through their faithful labors. We thank thee that this day 
has been set apart by this church, for the purpose of calling to remem- 



6 

l) ranee these, its early pastors, and others who have spoken to it the 
word of God, but have finished their earthly course. We beseech thee 
to grant thy assistance in all the exercises in which we may engage. 
Make the occasion one of blessing to the pastor and members of this 
church, and to all who may attend upon the services of the day. 
While called to review thy dealings with this beloved flock, and the 
manifestations of thy goodness in this town, may our hearts go forth to 
thee in devout gratitude and praise. And to the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost be all the glory. Amen. 

The following words were sung in the old style of lining : 

" What though the arm of conquering death. 
Does God's own house invade ? 
What though the prophet and the priest 
Are numbered with the dead ? 

Though earthly shepherds dwell in dust, — 

The aged and the young, 
The watchful eye in darkness closed, 

And mute the instructive tongue : — 

Th' eternal Shepherd still survives, 

New comfort to impart ; 
His eye still guides us, and his voice 

Still animates our heart." 



SECOND DIVISION. 
A Procession was formed and proceeded to the Burial 
Ground, and formed a hollow square around the Monu- 
ment, where were performed the following exercises : — 

REPORT OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, TO THE FIRST CONGRE- 
GATIONAL CHURCH IN SUFFIELD. 

Dear Brethren : — The undersigned appointed by your suffrage, an 
Executive Committee, for the erection of a monument to the memory 
of Rev. Benjamin Boggles, first pastor of the church in this town, 
and his consort, respectfully report : — 

Upon assuming the duties assigned them, the attention of your com- 
mittee was directed toward the adoption of a suitable design for saidi 



monument ; and the thought occurred to their minds that a model of 
the first house erected for public worship in this town, in which Mr. 
Ruggles was ordained, would be well adapted for the purpose, and at 
the same time be an interesting memento of the humble house in which 
our fathers worshiped. Upon further consideration the idea was by 
them adopted ; and plans for such a monument were prepared, repre- 
senting said house in its general form, as near as could be gathered 
from records concerning it, and by inference from the known architec- 
ture of that period. 

The place of Mr. Ruggles' sepulture has been a subject of investiga- 
tion by your committee. It is well known that a dilapidated monu- 
ment remained to mark the grave of Mrs. Ruggles, but otherwise there 
was nothing visible to mark his grave. There is a record under date 
of September 22, 1708, seventeen days subsequent to Mr. Ruggles' 
decease, that it was voted to allow John Rising and Samuel Sikes a 
compensation " for their going to the Bay with y e Rev. Mr. Ruggles ; " 
and August 2, 1709, about one year later, it was " voted to set a 
decent tomb upon the grave of the Rev. Mr. Benjamin Ruggles, 
deceased, upon the town's charge." The first of the above quoted votes 
shows that Mr. Ruggles had journeyed to Roxbury, the place of his 
nativity, no great length of time previous, and as no tomb or monument 
marked his grave here, the question arose, " Did not his death occur 
while absent on a visit to his friends?" To satisfy their minds with 
respect to this and also with respect to his birth, they have examined 
the records of Roxbury, his native place, and also of Braintree and 
Weymouth, where some of his kindred resided. By this investigation 
your committee were convinced that he died in Suffield, and that here 
was the place to look for his grave. Upon locating the monument and 
excavating for its foundation, the grave of Mrs. Ruggles was very 
readily found, but nothing indicating the resting place of Mr. Ruggles. 
Mrs. Ruggles' grave was found to lie close to the east side of the 
Monument, and upon investigation by excavating on the east side of 
her grave, the place of Mr. Ruggles' sepulture was found to be under 
the Avenue, four feet from the monument. Since this investigation 
your committee have also received testimony from Rev. Samuel Ruggles 
of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, saying that his ancestor, Rev. Benjamin 
Ruggles, died in this town, and was buried by the side of his wife. 

Another subject for consideration was the disposition to be made of 
the stone slab which for one hundred and fifty years had marked the 
grave of Mrs. Ruggles ; and your committee came to the conclusion to 



8 

deposit it in the ground over the graves of Mr. Ruggles and his con- 
sort ; and it has thus been deposited, extending east from the monument 
over both their graves. 

Brethren, the monument is before you, bearing upon one side an 
inscription, to the memory of Mr. Ruggles, a draft of which was 
presented to us, by the committee whom you appointed to prepare it ; 
and on the other side is a fac simile of the inscription, with its accom- 
panying quaint emblems, which the old monument has so long borne. 
The whole expense of the monument and fixtures has been some three 
hundred dollars. Through your munificence, aided by that of some of 
our fellow citizens and some of the sons and daughters of Suffield 
abroad, we have been enabled to accomplish this work. 

In the days when our fathers assembled to worship God in the 
humble house of which this monument is both a model and a memento, 
" a red flag "* was hung out to notify them of the hour for meeting. 

As a token of our offering this monument for your acceptance and to 
your care we now place upon it this little flag, which we present to the 
pastor of this church, as a memento of the transactions of this day, and 
of the days of his early predecessors in the pastoral office. 

Yours in the Fellowship of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, 
HENRY A. SYKES, 
DANIEL W. NORTON, 
BYRON LOOMIS, 

Executive Committee. 
Suffield, Ct., September 16, 1858. 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON INSCRIPTIONS, TO THE FIRST CONGRE- 
GATIONAL CHURCH IN SUFFIELD. 

The committee appointed by the church to prepare an inscription for the 
monument of Rev. Benjamin Ruggles, would present the follow- 
ing report : — 

As the members of the committee were too distant from one another 
to render a personal interview convenient, they could accomplish the 
object of their appointment only by correspondence. They have given 
such attention to the matter as their situation and the shortness of the 



* April 6, 1686. " Agreed and voted to begin the meeting on y e Sabbath at nine 
of the clock in the morning and at halfe an houre after one of y e clock in the after- 
noone— And that the Townsemen shall upon y« townes' cost procure a ladder and 
alsoe a red flagg to hang out for a signe that persons may know the time for 
assembling together." — Town Records. 




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9 

time permitted. The principal facts embodied in the inscription were 
furnished by the kindness of Mr. Henry A. Sykes, to whose thorough 
investigations at home and abroad, the committee would acknowledge 
themselves highly indebted. 

The inscription is as follows : 

"Rev. BENJAMIN RUGGLES ; 

Born in Roxbury, Mass., August 11, 1676, O. S. 
Graduated at Harvard, 1693 ; 
Ordained in Suffield, April 26, 1698. 
Died September 5, 1708, Aged 32. 
the character given him in the record of the past, is that 
of a humble christian j a true peacemaker ; an evan- 
gelical preacher, and a successful pastor. 
1 The Righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance.' 
ERECTED 
BY THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH IN SUFFIELD, IN HONOR OF 
ITS FIRST PASTOR AND IN CONNEXION WITH THE ONE HUN- 
DRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DECEASE, 
COMMEMORATED SEPTEMBER 16, 1858, N. S." 

JOEL MANN, 
HENRY ROBINSON, 
ASAHEL C. WASHBURN, 
JOHN R. MILLER, 

Committee on Inscriptions. 
Suffield, September 16, 1858. 

RESPONSE OF REV. J. R. MILLER, PASTOR OF THE FIRST CONGRE- 
GATIONAL CHURCH. 

Mr. President : — A response is expected ; and it naturally devolves 
upon the pastor of the church, as chairman of its business meetings ; 
but it is with diffidence and yet with pleasure that I appear to perform 
this duty on an occasion like this. 

The reports just made by the executive committee, and the commit- 
tee on inscriptions point us to this Monument as the object of our 
present thoughts, designed by its structure to be, in the language of 
the report, " an interesting memento of the humble house in which 
our fathers worshiped." Behold it ; mark its form ; read its inscrip- 
tions ; they carry us back in imagination a hundred and fifty years ; 
2 



10 

and what monumental form could be more befitting the object we have 
aimed at in the erection of this ! Then the godly man, whose mortal 
remains have since been mouldering side by side with those of his 
beloved consort under this sacred sod, and in honor of whom this Mon- 
ument has now been erected, had finished his earthly labors. He had 
sowed the seed that is gladdening us by its fruits to-day. 

A hundred and fifty years ago ! That is far back in our country's 
history. You see by that inscription that the Rev. Mr. Ruggles was 
born within fifty-six years of the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth 
Rock ; and that his death occurred within eighty-eight years of that 
time, ever memorable in the annals of New England. Ten years as 
pastor, and two years previously, he labored as a pioneer in laying the 
foundations of a religious society on this spot, blessed of God above 
most other places, both in beauty and fertility. 

But could he descend to-day, would he recognize the scene of his 
earthly labors ? 

Yon hills remain ; the general configuration of the land is the same ; 
the same sun, and moon, and stars shine down upon it : but time has 
wrought a mighty change. Not a house, I suppose, remains that was 
then standing, unless it has been so thoroughly remodeled as to be 
made over almost entirely new ; and few, if any, are the trees that 
were even saplings then. Those grand old forests that stood on these 
fields have all disappeared. And the fathers, where are they ? Gone ; 
all gone. Many of them sleep on this very spot. Their graves are 
here ; and the graves of many of their children ; yea, and of their 
childrens' children. A succession of pastors have here lived and la- 
bored. The monuments of some of them we behold, standing here 
where we now stand. Generations have here passed away. Many 
scenes and events have here transpired. How different from a hundred 
and fifty years ago all things here to-day ! 

This country was not free, but under British rule when our first 
pastor labored here. He came to this place during the time embraced 
in what is known as King William's war. The tragedy of Deerfield 
Mass. , in which the Rev. Mr. Williams and all his family were taken 
captive by the Indians, occurred during the latter part of his ministry. 
Since then we have grown into an independent Republic. The wars of 
the revolution have been fought ; a succession of Presidents have been 
elected to office, and retired ; population has multiplied ; education 
has advanced ; the arts have been cultivated ; religion has spread ; 
schools, colleges, churches, and cities have thickened in the land ; the 



11 

events of a great and growing nation have transpired ; a net-work 
of railways and telegraph wires have made this wide-spread country as 
a neighborhood ; and recently the two continents have been bound to- 
gether by a cable through which there is said to be free communication 
of thought and intelligence — words like lightning leap to and fro 
through their mighty course along the ocean's bed. Standing here to- 
day how difficult to conceive the difference between now, and then. 
The place has changed ; the country has changed ; the times are 
changed. 

But the erection of this Monument, and the gathering of this assem- 
bly prove that the seed sown by our first pastor has not been lost, but 
that there are here to-day, those who hold a sympathy with the man. 
and with his christian work. Instead of the fathers are the children. 
A like spirit animates them. And they will not suffer the fathers to 
be forgotten, No. They have copied from the good old Bible, and 
engraved on this tablet as their sentiment, 

" The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance." 

The transactions of this day say loudly, "Let the righteous in our 
memory live, and let their righteous deeds be recorded." It is right. 
It is beneficial. We owe it to them. We owe it to ourselves, and 
our children, and coming posterity. We owe it to God. And why 
to God ? Because in every church there is a history, and the dealings 
of God are to be traced in that history. Therefore the erection of this 
Monument is a noble and praise-worthy undertaking. It is important 
in its historic bearings. The facts that will be thus rescued from ob- 
livion are important. They will be gathered up, and handed down as 
items first and important in the history of God's gracious dealings with 
his church in this place. 

This movement is attended with some cost of thought, and labor, 
and money. But we would have none of that narrow-minded, parsi- 
monious, selfish, mean, Judas-like spirit, that would say, " Wherefore 
is this waste, for this Monument might have been spared, and the 
three hundred dollars given to the poor." No. And it is not those 
who care most for the poor, that would say this. 

Would ther.e were more of this philanthrophy. It opens the heart, 
and makes broader and deeper the christian sentiment. 

Therefore, Mr. President, I will here introduce a short episode, and 
speaking as a citizen of Suffield, make a suggestion. Back of Mr. 
Ruggles, there was a minister here — the Rev. John Younglove. He 



12 

was pre-eminently the minister of the town. He is buried on this spot, 
but no stone marks the place of his grave. Now would it not be no- 
ble in us as a town to do for his memory as the first minister, what 
the first church has done for the memory of its first pastor ? 

This is an age of sentiment ; and sentiment as well as law has its au- 
thority and its sanctions : the one presides in the Forum, the other in 
the Cemetery ; the one essays to protect the rights of the living, the 
other the ashes of the dead. The last resting-place of man is a strife- 
less resting-place. No rivalries agitate the bosom, and no alarms dis- 
turb the slumbers of the dead. Even the sight of the grave of a fallen 
foe changes resentment into reverence, and transforms hatred into love. 
The grave is sacred ; it is inviolate, even though it be an humble one. 
In all ages and among all nations it has proved a defense to the sacred 
deposit committed to its trust. The rude hand is palsied here. None 
but a wretch will violate the sanctuary of the grave. 

And should it not be so ? 

Who has not friends in the dark domain of the dead ? And towards 
that dark domain a resistless power is bearing us all onward. To die 
is the common doom. There is no escape. Redeemed dust must lie 
imprisoned its appointed time. But the time of release will come. 
How long soever these slumbers shall continue, the earth and sea shall 
ultimately give up the dead that are in them ; then, death, where 
will be thy sting ; grave, where thy victory. 

Singing by the Choir, 673d Hymn, (Church Psalmody.) 

' ' Hear what the voice from heaven proclaims 
For all the pious dead ! 
Sweet is the savor of their names, 
And soft their sleeping bed. 

They die in Jesus, and are blest ; 

How kind their slumbers are ! 
From suffering and from sin released, 

They're freed from every snare. 

Far from this world of toil and strife. 

They're present with the Lord ; 
The labors of their mortal life 

End in a large reward.''* 



13 



THIRD DIVISION. 

The procession then proceeded to the church, which had 
been appropriately and tastefully decked, by the young la- 
dies, with wreaths of evergreen. Upon the wall over the 
pulpit, hung a banner encircled with a wreath of evergreen, 
bearing these inviting words : 





Ye Aged 

Servants of the £ovl 

WELCOME 

Sons and Daughters of Suffield to 
the Home of your Fathers 



WELCOME 

JTfllotu Ctti>nis, one anti all. 




N^^ 




At the church there were the following exercises : — 
Singing by the Congregation, 654th Hymn, (Church 
Psalmody.) 

"Great God! beneath whose piercing eye 
The earth's extended kingdoms lie ; 
Whose favoring smile upholds them all, 
Whose anger smites them and they fall ; — 

We how hefore thy heavenly throne ; 
Thy power we see — thy greatness own ; 
Yet, cherished by the milder voice, 
Our bosoms tremble and rejoice. 



14 

Thy kindness to our fathers shown 
Their children's children long shall own ; 
To thee, with grateful hearts, shall raise 
The tribute of exulting praise. 

Led on by thine unerring aid, 
Secure the paths of life we tread ; 
And, freely as the vital air, 
Thy first and noblest bounties share. 

Great God, our guardian, guide, and friend ! 
Oh still thy sheltering arm extend j 
Preserved by thee for ages past, 
For ages let thy kinlness last !" 

Prayer by Rev. Daniel Waldo. 

Almighty and most merciful Father ; may our minds be deeply 
solemnized while we celebrate the memory of thy long departed servant. 
May we all be imbued with the spirit that animated him ; and fulfill 
our mission as he did, be it longer or shorter. 

Give, we beseech thee, to all who perform parts on this occasion, the 
influences of thy Holy Spirit, that the hearers may receive a new im- 
pulse in discharging their duty with greater fidelity to their Master, 
being instrumental in turning many from darkness to light ; and that 
we all may receive the plaudit of the Judge — Well done thou good 
and faithful servant ; enter into the joy of thy Lord. Amen. 

Then followed an Address by Rev. Aratus Kent. 

Fellow Citizens of Suffield : — We are assembled here this day 
to take note of the flight of time, to revive early friendship, and to call 
up recollections of former years before they have escaped from our 
grasp. 

One hundred and fifty years have passed away since a mourning 
church were gathered in yonder grave-yard to pay the last tribute of 
respect to their revered and affectionate pastor. I shall not attempt to 
depict the burial scene, for there is no record left of the transaction. 

Human life is reduced to a brief period, and the burdened memory 
of advanced years falters and forgets most of the innumerable events 
which have crowded along its lengthened pathway, and yet I can look 
back more than fifty years and call to mind facts and incidents that 



15 

were indelibly written upon my memory. And as " the interest and 
value of history depends upon details," I need no apology for giving 
some of my personal recollections. 

It is more than half a century since I used to pass the house and 
watch the slow tread of old Captain Hitchcock, then more than ninety, 
as he walked out and leaning upon the top of his staff, bent down to 
extract the last bunch of May-weed that ventured to take root in front 
of his domicil. I remember the school-house which stood on the Green, 
as it was brilliantly illuminated, when the choice of Jefferson to the 
presidency was announced ; and I remember the gloomy forebodings of 
the Federalists on that occasion. I remember some fifty years ago 
when Gideon Granger, Postmster-General, used to come home from 
Washington City, portly, polite, and his head powdered according to 
the fashion of the times ; and I remember the fact stated by my father, 
that he was born on the very site where I was afterwards cradled. I 
have a dim and hazy recollection of the Hon. Oliver Phelps, once 
the proprietor of the mansion next south of the Old Parsonage, where 
wc were just now convened. He was famous for his agency in the set- 
tlement of the Holland Purchase and the immense wealth he was sup- 
posed at that time to possess. He removed to Canandaigua in eighteen 
hundred and two. I have a more distinct recollection of his son Lies- 
cester, and of the humorous story told when he went to France, that if 
he liked it, his father would buy it for him. I have had a more recent 
acquaintance with his grandson, Judge Oliver Phelps, who was con- 
spicuous among those who carved a road for the Erie canal through the 
mountain rock at Lockport, and it is but five days since in passing 
through Canada I traveled with his great grandson, who resides in the 
province near Suspension Bridge. He is reported to be largely opulent, 
and he certainly was largely gray-headed. Fifty years ago I was a 
school-boy here, who with my mates, used to race over the play-ground, 
and fish in the ponds, and bathe in the creek ; and once I recollect that 
a bottle of spirits was in attendance : I do not remember which boy it 
was that carried the bottle ; but I do remember many who have been 
slain by it ; and why was not I ? It is about fifty years since I 
looked into the grave of a lad of my own age, and thought of death, 
and the necessity of a speedy preparation. It is not far from half a 
century since, in passing down the road towards our pasture, I met a 
lad of my age coming towards me, and I went round on the hill to 
avoid him, for it was reported that he had become a christian, and I 
feared to encounter the young convert. 



16 

Fifty years have registered their changes on me. I cannot conceal 
them if I would, and I would not if I could. 

What changes in my early associates ! Most of them are dead. 
And how altered the appearance of those that still live ! Once young 
and blithe as the morning songster, and sprightly as the deer, their 
eyes sparkled with animation. Their countenances were ruddy with 
health, and their spirits were buoyant with hope. But old time has 
written decay upon their wrinkled brow. Gray hairs are multiplying, 
and the next generation are anticipating their speedy removal. 

In the town these changes are everywhere visible. It is true some 
things remain as they were. Some houses are still standing, but their 
inmates are changed. Some trees that my neighbor Loomis planted 
and watered are still there ; and I rejoice that he still lives to enjoy 
their shade. May he partake richly of the fruit of the tree of life, 
whose very leaves are for the healing of the nations. And those ven- 
erable spreading elms, which I used to admire, which hung so grace- 
fully over the parson's door, and under whose shadow we this day con- 
vened, are yet standing as monuments of the taste of their proprietors. 

The old homestead (the present parsonage) where my parents toiled 
and prayed and died, still remains very much as it was. But its pres- 
ent occupants know not Joseph. Strange voices there greet my ears. 
The furniture is changed, and the pictures that childish scrutiny paint- 
ed on the memory are gone. The old aunt has ceased to knit, and the 
old clock to tick, as they were wont to do fifty years ago. 

The brook still flows as when I ran along the banks and traced its 
obliquities and dropped my fishing line into its deep pools ; but the 
brook seems smaller, since I have encountered so many broad rivers in 
my pereginations. Mount Tom still lifts its heavy head to the specta- 
tor's gaze. It was once to me an other name for north. I remember 
how pleasantly the church bell of Enfield and others responded to each 
other on the sabbath morning over the waters of Connecticut River, 
little dreaming then that I should live to witness Europe and America 
ringing changes to each other under the waters of the ocean. 

So if we take a hasty glance at the state, the whole confederacy, or 
the world at large, what changes has half a century wrought in society 
and public sentiment. What improvements have obtained in hus- 
bandry, in science and in the arts. 

My honored father when he stood with sickle on his shoulder, his 
hands resting on his tired hips, and the perspiration pouring off his 
furrowed cheeks, could not easily have anticipated that his grandson, a 



17 

lad of sixteen should with two horses and a reaper, and without previ- 
ous experience or fatigue, cut down three acres of heavy wheat in as 
many hours. 

There are many before me who remember the measured pace and 
slow progress of Dr. Pease, who in his professional duties traveled 
constantly over this town for half a century, until his coming down the 
road was almost as much a matter of course as the return of the morn- 
ing. Suppose that by some magic art, the Doctor could have ex- 
changed his meek animal for the iron horse — his plain vehicle for a 
cushioned and curtained rail-car — his exposures to cold and storm for 
a warm and parlor-like coach, and his three mile gait for thirty miles 
an hour. Would not the change have disturbed his equinimity, and 
would he not have repeated with nervous agitation what he was wont to 
say with his accustomed pleasantry, "There is no use in hurrying 
through the world." Dr. Franklin would hardly have believed what 
is quite familiar now, that we in this age should so far tame ms fiery 
steeu, the lightning, that it should come and go at our bidding — that 
in place of ranging at will among the clouds, he should submissively 
follow our leading line along the bottom of the sea, and should carry 
messages quick as tiiougut to friends on the eastern continent. 

There is however, no one thing that more impressively reminds me 
of the changes of half a century than to come into your sanctuary, 
where I was taught and trained to be present every sabbath, (and I 
bless God for such a training.) The congregation is changed, and 
there are but few whom I know, and other few whom I recognize by a 
strong family likeness to those with whom I was once associated. The 
fathers where are they, and the prophets do they live forever. There 
were 'Squire Hatueway, and 'Squire Leatitt, and 'Squire Gay, Dr. 
Alden and Josiau King always at church ; Dea. Taylor always at 
funerals ; Col. Kent with pitch-pipe in hand always in his place to 
lead the choir. There were Mr. Fuller, Seth King, Nathaniel 
Rising, Dea. Hale and Shadrach Trumbol, and many others. I 
see them no more. There were many honorable women, Mothers in 
Israel. I name them not, except Mrs. Gay, wife of our pastor. She 
was always in her seat. Their places are now vacant, but their record 
is on high. But not alone the congregation, the house itself is 
changed. The sounding-board is taken down ; the foot-stoves have all 
been laid aside ; and the old square pews are gone. The high pews 
in the gallery, where I and other lads were turned loose to hie and 
tempt each other to sin, are gone. There is no safe place for children 
3 



18 

on the sabbath but by the side of their parents. Dr. Bacon says,. 
" The congregation ought to present themselves in the house of God 
by families." 

But it is time to put a check upon these dreams of memory which I 
have indulged in, not to be egotistic, but only from a wish to say some- 
thing for the entertainment of those who have met on this special occa- 
sion. I will however, allude to one additional incident which belongs 
to the list of personal recollections. It is more than fifty years since I 
used to run across the grave-yard and leave my little foot-prints on the 
broad and moss-covered tablet of the wife of that honored ancestor 
whose demise we this day commemorate. And this will very naturally 
introduce you to my subject which is, The Inestimable value of an 
Educated and Evangelical Ministry. 

The Christian Ministry aside from its relations to our eternity is 
vastly important for its influence upon society, for it is that mainly 
which lifts us to an elevation such as Paganism never could obtain. 
But educated minds will always maintain the ascendancy, and there- 
fore uneducated clergymen fail to mould public sentiment because they 
cannot reach the leading minds. 

But ministers may be educated and yet fail of success because they 
are not Evangelical, i. e., they do not embrace and teach those great 
truths of the Gospel, and those soul-humbling doctrines which the 
spirit of God employs to arouse the slumbering conscience, and to turn 
the heart's warm affections from self aggandisement to the promotion 
of God's glory. Hence, I say, by way of discrimination that an edu- 
cated Evangelical Ministry possesses a value that no arithmetic can es- 
timate, in its influence on society. Such a Ministry should be highly 
valued for the morality it inculates and the power it exerts to enforce it. 

The Holy Scriptures "show unto us the way of salvation," but my 
object now is not so much to treat of a future state as to prove that 
they inculcate the only reliable morality. I say then that every minis- 
ter who would improve society by his preaching, must base his instruc- 
tions upon the great principles imbedded in i;ie ten Commandments. 
Human fingers never wrote out a code of laws that will compare with 
that great compendium of morality written on two tables of stone by 
the finger of God. 

The visionary theories of Heathen Philosophy as well as the teach- 
ings of Free Thinkers — the code of honor (a great misnomer) and all 
the infidel speculations, have utterly failed to reform mankind, because 



19 

they have neither a solid basis nor a divine sanction. And when these 
worldly wise men attempt to put down divine revelation and put forth 
then own fancies in place of it, they deserve no more respect than the 
vagabond Jews obtained when the man in whom the evil spirit was, 
leaped upon them and evercome them, saying, " Jesus I know, and 
Paul I know, but who are ye ?" 

But the morality of the Bible is adapted to man's nature, and ap- 
proved by his conscience. This is so true that the libertine and the 
murderer and every other transgressor however reckless cannot call it 
in question. While the worldling's morality, like Lord Chesterfield's 
politeness, is but a silver coating to conceal the rottenness within, the 
morality we commend assumes to regulate the heart, and erects her 
censorship over the hidden motives and secret thoughts. 

Mark also the power tuey wield. 

It may be a matter of surprise to some, that ministers should possess 
the power to enforce a morality imposing such restraints upon the ap- 
petites and passions of selfish men — To a superficial observer it is un- 
accountable, that a modest man, who like his divine Master makes no 
parade of his learning or authority, and never puts himself forward but 
as his official duties push him into public view — that such an one 
should be able to recommend and establish a morality so uncongenial 
to the taste and so crossing to the habits of society. 

Let us look at this, and perhaps we may discover the secret of their 
power. It is the power of truth over error ; and this by frequent repeti- 
tion has gradually wrought a settled conviction which silences their eavib 
if it does not more, for there are but few men so hardened as to be 
willing to engage against the convictions of their own conscience, and 
however much they may dislike its doctrines there are but few who 
care to inveigh against the morality of the Bible, even when it in- 
fringes upon their own conduct. 

The power of the preacher is increased by the fact that a portion of 
time is set apart for the public exhibition of those truths, when a great 
variety of motives combine to induce people to attend upon his instruc- 
tions. Consider too, that his lectures are not didactic and dry, as fitted 
only for philosophers, but delivered in popular discourses, level to the 
capacities of his audience, and coming from a heart fully alive to their 
importance. It serves deeply to rivet the impression that they are repeat- 
ed every sabbath day. Thus by a constant attendance the hearer secures 
a course of fifty-two lectures in a year, and although the instructions 



20 

are as diversified as the number of the sabbaths and the endless variety 
of subjects on which he treats, yet in so far as morality is concerned, 
every sabbath-service is but deepening the impression of all the pre- 
vious lectures. 

You will remark also, the authority with which they are clothed for 
the administration of a wholesome discipline. The Lord Jesus is the 
source of all power in heaven and on earth, and he has delegated the 
power of discipline to the minister and his church. "Whatsoever ye 
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven." On this passage, Dr. 
Mason made this comment, " discipline is as much a mean of grace as 
prayer or preaching, and no church can flourish where it is neglected." 

The general acquaintance of the minister with his people which he 
has acquired by pastoral visitation, and the high reputation of moral 
excellence which he sustains, serves to extend the sphere of his influ- 
ence, and to enforce the teachings of the pulpit. If books are to him 
what tools are to the mechanic, it is no less true that character is to 
him what capital is to the merchant. As the one cannot do business 
without a certain amount of stock in trade, so the other cannot sway 
the public mind, nor mould public sentiment on the basis of scriptural 
morality if his own reputation is tarnished. But if he is known only 
to be loved and revered, then will he command respect when he urges 
truth and duty upon others. 

Again, this unrivaled moral power of the pulpit is in no small meas- 
ure the effect of those iiigiier motives which the preacher employs. 
Wicked men may be checked somewhat by pride of character, the in- 
fluence of pious parents, and of an early education, and the fear 
of losing caste. But aJl these motives are no better than a flaxen 
cord to bind a man when exposed to the flames of excited passions. 
It is then that he needs the restraints imposed by the fear of God, the 
terrors of a future retribution, and above all by the constraining power 
of Christ's love. These are the only motives which will sustain that 
elevated and rectified morality essential to refined and Christian so- 
ciety. Finally, the power of the Christian minister depends very much 
upon his possessing the unction of his subject. If his most labored ef- 
forts are cold as a moon-beam, he will have no power at all ; but if he 
is himself moved by love and gratitude to God, he will then possess 
the power to move his audience as the trees of the wood are moved by 
the wind. 

Now let this analysis of the influence of the ministry be gathered 



21 

into a brief synopsis. The intrinsic power of truth ; the time set 
apart for the investigation ; the weekly repetition of the same great 
principles ; the power of a righteous discipline ; the extensive accpiaint- 
anee and the high character of the administrator ; the far reaching 
motives he employs ; the tender concern of the pastor, and the soul 
stirring inspiration of his subject. Let all these be combined, and the 
influence of such a preacher must be powerful, salutary, and perma- 
nent. But if we would do justice to the subject we must consider the 
amount of labor In 1 performs. His weekly preparations are a severe 
tax upon his mental energies. The sabbath- service exhausts him by its 
crushing responsibilities, and then he is called to perform a vast amount 
of pastoral duty. He solemnizes weddings. He conducts funerals. 
His presence is anticipated in the sick-room. His visits to the afflicted 
are soothing as oil — to the mourners they are cheering as a cordial to 
the perishing. He instructs the children. He rebukes the wayward 
youth, midway between boyhood and manhood, and persuades him to 
submit patiently to parental restraint ; while intemperance, lewdness, 
sabbath breaking and profane language are sure to meet a timely re- 
proof at every new development. And is not such a reformer worthy 
of patronage if there were no other lite but this'.' Such a man we 
may presume was Rev. Benjamin Ruqgles, though I know little of 
him but the honorable record of his graduation and death in the 
Triennial Catalogue of Harvard College ; and is it any wonder that his 
people should weep when he ceases from his work and lays him down 
to die. Is it any wonder that those he has trained to usefulness 
should rise up and call him blessed, or that unborn generations should 
build anew his sepulture. This is in sweet accordance with that scrip- 
ture which we have just now read upon his tomb-stone, " the right- 
eous SHALL BE IN EVERLASTING REMEMBRANCE ;" and that Other 

scripture, " They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the 
stars forever and ever." 

But I must hasten my farewell to the scenes of childhood that I 
loved so well. Farewell to the church and the school-house. Fare- 
well to this broad and pleasant common on which I built snow-forts on 
a winter's night, and ran races during the twilight of a summer's ev- 
ening. Farewell to the companions of my youth. Our last race will 
soon be run. It matters not whether we meet again on earth, if 
we do but enter Paradise together. It matters not whether we go 
sooner or later, so that we go the right way. It matters little with me 



22 

whether I find a grave hy the side of my parents, in the valley of the 
Connecticut River, or hy the side of my children in the Mississippi 
Valley. Again I say, farewell until we meet before the great white 
throne ; and it should be a great motive to hasten our preparation that 
Behold the Judge standeth at the door. 

Singing by the Choir, 100th Psalm, 3d part (Church 
Psalmody.) 

" Before Jehovah's awful throne, 

Ye Nations, bow with sacred joy : 
Know that the Lord is God alone ; 
lie can create and he destroy. 

His sovereign power, without our aid, 

Made us of clay and formed us men ; 
And when, like wandering sheep we strayed, 

He brought us to his fold again. 

We are his people — we his care — 

Our souls, and all our mortal frame : 

What lasting honors shall we rear, 
Almighty Maker, to thy name ? 

We'll crowd thy gates, with thankful songs, 
Hiah, as the Heaven, our voices raise : 

And earth, with all her thousand tongues, 
Shall fill thy courts with sounding praise. 

Wide — as the world — is thy command ; 

Vast — as eternity — thy love ; 
Firm — as a rock — thy truth shall stand, 

When rolling years shall cease to move." 

Historical Address by Henry A. Sykes, A. M. 



ADDRESS. 



Mr. President, Friends, and Fellow Citizens : 

Living, as we do, at the close of a cycle of time, 
reminding us of one who, in the Providence of God, was 
appointed to he a prominent instrument in establishing 
the privileges and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ 
among our ancestors ; and, assembled as we are, to com- 
memorate the close of his pastoral labors, and his departure 
to his reward ; it is well to recall to mind transactions of 
the past, and trace the dealings of God with those who 
have gone before us, whose places we now occupy, whom 
we must soon follow, and render account of the manner in 
which we improve the privileges transmitted to us. 

The study of Divine Providence as revealed in the his- 
tory of man, either in his individual, social, or civil rela- 
tions, is a duty lepleie with interest and profit to all who 
bring to it hearts purified from that morbid spirit of self- 
love, which, in its own estimation, can derive good only 
from that which in its earth-born wisdom, it conceives to 
be calculated to promote its own narrow purposes of self- 
aggrandizement. 



24 

Says Bishop Meade,* "It is a useful employment for 
societies, as well as individuals, to look back through their 
past history, and mark the dealings of a kind Providence 
towards them." Another writerf remarks that " The ways 
of Providence are the noblest study of man." And when 
the inspired Lawgiver of God's chosen people, in the last 
solemn, closing scene of his commission, addresses them in 
language like this: "Remember the days of old, consider 
the years of many generations ; ask thy lather, and he will 
shew thee ; thy elders and they will tell thee." | Does it 
not become us — is it not wise for us — to consider our past 
history, to mark the dealings of God in his Providence 
with us, as individuals, as families, and as a community ? 
Nay ! — it is folly, it is ingratitude, a sin of a deep and dark 
dye, to neglect to do it, yet, how often do we hear remarks 
of a contemptuous nature, respecting an inquiry, or a 
knowledge of what has occurred in past time in a commu- 
nity like ours. Such things, in the minds of some, seem to 
be, in their estimation, beneath their dignity, and as of too 
small consequence to merit their notice. They can in- 
quire, perhaps, respecting the doings of statesmen and war- 
riors ; can read and discuss the price current of stocks, 
merchandise, produce, horses &c. They can tell you of the 
pedigree of this or that mams cattle and sheep; and of 
the number and quality of their acres of land; — and per- 
haps they may tell you the address to some gift enterprise, 
where you may invest a dollar and obtain Robinson Cru- 

* Old Churches and Families of Virginia, f Rev. Geo. Croly. | Deut. xxxii, 7. 



25 

soe, or a beautiful gilt annual, and even a Bible, — and O ! 
sucb prizes of nice jewelry. 

Another class have such piety they can find no time to 
inquire of the years of the past ; they are so zealous in do- 
ing God service, they cannot obey his precepts. They will 
hold up their hands "in wondrous admiration of the lessons 
of wisdom drawn by others from such researches, but they 
themselves must be engaged in more important business. 
All these people are in the habit of declaring, with an air 
of self-complacency, that they neither know nor care what 
was transacted in the community, nor by whom it was 
done a hundred years ago. Perhaps they will give you 
the intelligence that they hardly know what was the name 
of their grandfather. Can it be said of such, that they 
" remember the days of old," and "consider the years of 
many generations ?" Can it be said of them that they 
obey the Divine command ? which says : " Honor thy fath- 
er and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land 
which the Lord thy God giveth thee." Are they like their 
Heavenly Father ? of whom we are taught that not even a 
sparrow falls to the ground without his notice ? 

The individual who enters upon the stage of active life, 
without some knowledge of what has transpired in time 
that has passed, especially in his own country, is but poor- 
ly prepared to act his part in the duties of a citizen of an 
enlightened community. Indeed, such an one cannot ap 
predate and enjoy the high privileges and advantages 
which a position, in such a community, is calculated to 
4 



26 

impart to one fitted for it. He occupies, as it were an 
isolated position in the midst of his compeers. He may 
be compared to an islet standing in the midst of rushing 
rapids, alone and inaccessible to the improvements and 
beauties of the surrounding landscape ; remaining 
" Alike unknowing and unknown."* 
But history, as presented by its writers,, too often gives 
an account only of rulers, statesmen and generals ; while 
the people are practically considered as mere vassals, and 
slaves, unworthy of any particular attention, otherwise 
than as instruments which have been used for accomplish- 
ing the ambitious purposes of those whom the world call 
great. Their joys and sorrows, their hopes and fears, their 
trials and sufferings, are not considered worth the trouble 
of commemorating on its page. Yet he that would study 
Divine Providence, as revealed in the history of man, 
should not confine his research merely to the doings of 
rulers, the debates of statesmen, nor the devastations of 
generals ; but should make himself acquainted with the do- 
ings of the people, in their more private walks. He should 
inquire into their moral character and learn the motives 
by which they were influenced, in doing as they did. He 
should, if possible, make himself familiar with the springs 
of action which have been the motive power that has ac- 
complished whatever may have been done among them. 
Unless he does this, he can hardly be said to be deriving 
advantage from his studies. He may indeed amuse 

* Watts. 



27 

himself with accounts of the overthrow of states and em- 
pires, the intrigues of legislators, and the death of kings ; 
— he may revel in the detail of the strange work of battles, 
where men have destroyed their fellow men, where, 

" By torch and trumpet fast array'd, 
Each horseman drew his battle blade, 
And furious every charger neigh'd 
To join the dreadful revelry."* 

But he will fail to lay up those rich stores of the knowl- 
edge of man which he might derive from an acquaintance 
with the character, feelings, motives and actions of those 
who have lived before him in the humble walks of pri- 
vate life. 

True indeed, it may be difficult to gather up the infor- 
mation derived from the oblivion of the past ; so true is it 
that man lives and dies, and the places that knew him, 
know him no more forever. In a very short time, the 
transactions of a private individual pass from the recollec- 
tion of a community in which he may have lived, and are, 
as relates to this world, — except in their effects, — forever 
lost. And what is true of an individual, is also true, in 
the ordinary course of events, of communities, so far as re- 
gards the transactions of private life. Yet it cannot be 
said that the life of any individual, however obscure, has 
had no effect, either for good or for evil, on the community 
of which he may have formed a part. 

In reviewing the history of this town, we are met at 

* Campbell's " Hohenlinden." 



28 

have access to public records and documents, from which 
we learn when, and by whom, its settlement was com- 
the outset with the difficulty just referred to. True, we 
menced and accomplished. But the means of learning 
their character and motives of action, their trials and suf- 
ferings in the accomplishment of their purposes, are very 
limited. 

The last half century, in passing, has carried with it 
many a living oracle who might have been consulted, and 
many an interesting incident to enlighten us on this point, 
have been saved from oblivion. But they are gone ! and 
it now remains for us to rescue what may yet be found. 
Should the present brief review of our history stimulate to 
more diligent and combined action toward the accomplish- 
ment of this, we believe our efforts of this day will not 
have been made in vain. 

In detailing the history of Suffield, there are no accounts 
to give of hair breadth escapes from ruthless foes, nor of 
battle fields drenched in blood, by which to awaken an in- 
terest in the hearts of those whose attention can be arrest- 
ed only by the thrilling scenes of war and its attendant 
horrors ; — we have no fields whose story tells of — 

" Sounds that mingled laugh, — and shout, — and scream, — 

To freeze the Wood, in one discordant jar, 
Rung to the pealing thunderbolts of war," 

Nor have we legends telling — 

" Where human fiends, on midnight errands walk'd, 
And bath'd in brains the murderous tomahawk."* 

* Campbell. 



29 

Our history relates the more common occurrences of or- 
dinary life, where, in the peaceful pursuits of industry, our 
ancestors have subdued the sturdy forest that once covered 
this domain, and transmitted to us their successors, the 
rich inheritance of beautiful landscape and fruitful fields, 
together with the civil and religious privileges which we 
are permitted by an overruling Providence to enjoy at this 

day. 

"The farmer here, with honest pleasure, sees 
The orchards blushing to the fervid breeze ; 
The ripening fields, for joyous harvest drest, 
And the white spire that points a world of rest." 

In a very short time after our fathers had commenced 
their settlements around the Massachusetts Bay, their at- 
tention was turned toward the valley of the Quonnecticut. 
Within sixteen years from the arrival of the May Flower 
in Plymouth harbor, Hooker, Wareham, and Pyxchon, 
with their worthy associates and compeers, had become 
the pioneers of Wethersfield, Hartford, Windsor and 
Springfield. Yet although geographically located in the 
midst of those towns, and the route of communication 
passed through this territory, Stony-brook, as it was then 
called, remained a wild unbroken forest, for half a century 
after the landing of the Pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. 

To a casual observer it may appear somewhat singular, 
that so fertile and beautiful a region as this now is, should 
have been so long passed by and neglected; and probably 
it will appear still more strange, when informed that its 



30 

fertility, and what now contributes to its attractions and 
beauty were the very causes of its neglect at that day. 

Geologically considered, Suffield is found to be situ- 
ated on an elevation of sand-stone which divides the lower 
valley of the Connecticut into an upper and lower basin. 
This elevation, forming those beautiful undulations so 
characteristic of its surface, and impinging upon the river, 
deprive it of the alluvial interval lands which form an inter- 
esting feature in those towns, and which being compara- 
tively easily subdued and cultivated, were, no doubt, the 
objects of attraction to the early settlers in this valley. 
But the hills and dales of this town were overlaid with a 
rich, tenacious and retentive soil, producing a dense and 
heavy forest, thus rendering it, as our ancestors emphati- 
cally expressed it, " a very woody place, and difficult to 
winne." 

It may perhaps be interesting to take a brief retrospec- 
tive view of this region, and endeavor to picture to our 
minds its aspect at that day. Entering near its north-east 
corner, from the borders of Springfield, Ave find a lonely 
pathway winding along through the forest, following the 
summit of the ridges of high ground that it may avoid 
the dark and miry swamps intervening, as it passes in a 
south-westerly direction until it reaches the spot which, at 
a later day, was called Meeting-house Hill. Thence, in a 
more southern course, to Stony-brook, which it crosses, it 
continues onward till it enters upon Windsor Plain. This 
was the Springfield road, and is substantially the route 



31 

now followed in passing through Crooked-Lane, High and 
South Streets. Again returning to the place where we first 
set out, we find another pathway diverging to the left of the 
first, and passing east of the hill in that corner of the town, 
following near or upon the hank of the river, until it comes 
to the place now known as the Old Ferry Landing, — thence 
turning to the right, and continuing in a westerly direction 
till it intersects with the first, in the southern part of what 
is now called Crooked Lane, — and we have traced another 
branch of the Springfield road, a part of which has long 
been disused and forgotten. Going now to the north-west- 
erly part of that portion of the town lying east of the 
mountain, we find another pathway coming from the 
north, and passing southerly oyer the hill where the First 
Baptist meeting house now stands, thence onward over 
and west of Muddy- 1> rook to Stony-Brook, and soon after 
crossing it, intersecting the Springfield road, near the 
north end of what is now South Street. This was the 
Northampton road, and through these pathways was the in- 
tercourse between the upper and lower towns, carried on 
upon this side of the river. Passing along these pathways, 
we are every where surrounded by a dark and heavy for- 
est. The sturdy oak and majestic elm reach their strong 
arms high over our heads, while the deep foliage of the 
maple and its kindred trees shut out the genial rays of the 
sun, and enclose us beneath their umbrage. As we ascend 
some of the higher points of ground, we may perhaps 
through the interstices of the forest catch a glimpse of 



32 

some lofty pine as it sighs to the breeze. Looking down 
the gentle slopes of the hill sides toward the lower grounds, 
our vision is intercepted by a chaos, composed of the 
ruins of more primeval trees which have been laid pros- 
trate by the storms of past ages and now are mouldering 
beneath the dank herbage of the forest, which draws its 
sustenance from their decay. Go now to those low 
grounds ; enveloped in a labyrinth of murky shrubbery, 
and sinking in the miry soil, you will soon be glad to beat 
a retreat to a more genial region. 

Such was Suffield two centuries ago. But a change was 
to come. Pampunkshat and Mishnoasqus with their tawny 
associates, were destined by. an overruling Providence, to 
give place to the white man ; — the dark forest to the culti- 
vated fields ; and the sighing of the pine, to the voices of 
rural life and the song of praise from human lips in the 
house of God. 

About that period, Capt. John Pynchon of Springfield, 
in behalf of the people, purchased of the Indians Pam- 
punkshat and Mishnoasqus — alias Margery — those districts 
called by them, Lacowsic, Squotuc, Mayawaug, Wecups, 
Ashawalas and Wonococomaug.* These were embraced 
in what was by the English called Stony-brook. The con- 
sideration paid them "to their satisfaction," was thirty 
pounds sterling (about one hundred and fifty dollars), which 
was, most likely, really a gratuity, the* lands for all practi- 
cal purposes probably, being of as much service to them 

* Pynchon's deed to proprietors of Suffield. 



33 

after, as before their relinquishment of title to them. But 
thus quietly and peacably was their title legally extin- 
guished, and the red man — he is gone ! Peace to his 
ashes. No collision causing the shedding of blood, either 
of the white, or the red man on the soil of Suffield, is 
known to have taken place ; though fears of such a 
catastrophe were sometimes entertained, particularly in 
the time of Philip's war in 1675. 

In the winter of 1669 - 70, Samuel and Joseph Har- 
mon, having perhaps previously noted the tract of land 
lying west of the Northampton road, near the present cen- 
ter of the town, with some others, petitioned the select- 
men of Springfield for grants of land at Stony-Brook,* 
which were conditionally given them. It is supposed that 
the Harmons came here the next ensuing summer, and 
that to them must be given the honor of being the pi- 
oneers of the town. None of the other persons who had 
grants from the authority of Springfield, ever settled here. 
A petition for a grant of a plantation, or a township, at 
Stony-Brook, was presented to the General Court of Massa- 
chusetts Colony at their session, held at Boston, May 1670 ; 
and some action was taken respecting it at that time. At 
their next session, held October 12, the same year, the 
Court passed an act or grant, authorizing the settlement 
of a township at this place, defining its extent, limiting the 
amount of individual grants, requiring the maintenance of 

* Springfield Town Records. 



34 

a Gospel Ministry, with some other minor details, and ap- 
pointing a committee of six persons to grant lands to set- 
tlers, and conduct the public affairs of the plantation. 
The persons comprising this committee were, Capt. John 
Pynchon, Capt. Elizur Holyoke, Lieutenant Thomas 
Cooper, Quartermaster George Colton, Ensign Benjamin 
Cooley, and Rowland Thomas.* 

This committee met for the first time in their official ca- 
pacity, January 12, 1670 - 1, and drew up an Instru- 
ment, by which they were to be governed in attending to 
the duties of their commission, f At this time it was de- 
termined to settle eighty families in the place. After- 
wards the number was increased to one hundred. During 
the year 1671, lands were granted to nine persons who be- 
came settlers here. In May of this year, the committee 
determined that there should be a division of allotments 
or grants west of the Northampton road ; another, com- 
prising two ranges of lots upon the central street which 
they named High Street ; and a third division of a single 
range, on the west side of Feather Street, having the 
ground in front, between the street and the river, for a 
common. They afterward made divisions on South 
Street, Crooked Lane, and at the river near the Ferry. 
The streets between the divisions were laid out from six- 
teen to twenty rods wide, and those passing across the 
divisions from east to west, were from eight to twelve 

* Massachusetts Colonial Records. t Suffield Town Records. 



35 

rods wide. Where are those broad streets now ? The 
spirit of enterprise for straightuing them, which has been 
indulged for the last thirty or forty years, will, if contin- 
ued, give to future generations, streets like those of orien- 
tal cities, so strait that a loaded mule may sweep both 
sides at once. 

In 1672 the committee set out the ground for the 
meeting-house and for a public common. This was some 
forty rods wide. They also at the same time set apart 
a ministry grant, and an allotment for the first minister 
that should settle in the place. This was at a subsequent 
period given to Mr. John Younglove. During the year 
1672 no additions were made to the number of grantees, 
In the winter following, some alterations were made 
in the terms or tenure of Grants, more favorable to set- 
tlers. In 1673 it was determined that four pence per acre 
should be paid by grantees for their first grants to remu- 
nerate Mr. Pynchon his expenses on extinguishing the In- 
dian title. Nine grants were made this year ; two of them 
were to Mr. Pynchon — one in consideration of his having 
built a saw-mill in the place, and the other to him as peti- 
tioner at the General Court for the plantation. The saw- 
mill was built upon Stony-Brook in the vicinity of the 
great river. 

In 1674 the plantation was named Sutfield, an abbrevia- 
tion of Southfield.* At the same time the General Court 

* Massachusetts Colonial Records, Vol. V. 



36 

confirmed the bounds of the plantation according with a 
survey, extending six miles from north to south, and seven 
and a half miles from the river west. It was at this time 
that the Court were petitioned to grant this plantation 
seven years freedom from country rates it being " a very 
woody place and difficult to winne." Four years abate- 
ment were granted. Twenty grants of land were made 
during the year, one, together with the privileges of 
Stony and Muddy Brooks to Mr. Pynchon in consideration 
of his having built a " Corne Mill."* 

The war with the Indians, commonly called Philip's 
War, breaking out in 1675, the settlement was temporaryly 
broken up, and the inhabitants sought places of supposed 
greater security. At this time some thirty-five families 
were settled or about to settle here ; and after the war was 
closed some thirty of them returned to the place and re- 
sumed their residence here. JSTo grants were made for 
nearly two and a half years, but in 1677, settlers again be- 
gan to come in, and during that year, thirteen new names 
appear as grantees in the place. It was determined in 
view of the experience of the late war with the Indians, to 
settle more compact than had hitherto been done, and the 
Harmons and others from the west division were accom- 
modated with house-lots on High Street. Twelve new in- 
habitants appeared in 1678 : five of them settled by the 
river, near where the Ferry now is, between Suffield and 
Thompsonville. 

* Suffield Town Records. 



37 

In 1679 fourteen allotments were granted, five of them 
were to sons of previous settlers, and one was to Mr. John 
Younglove, who had been invited to come and settle here 
in the ministry. The homestead pertaining to Mr. 
Younglove's grant, containing thirty acres, was land now 
owned and occupied by the second Baptist Society. No- 
vember 17th of that } T ear, the inhabitants met and voted 
to build a house for Mr. Younglove, forty feet long by 
twenty feet wide and ten feet high. It is probable that 
this house was built near the ground where the second 
Baptist meeting-house now stands. 

In 1680, nineteen persons had grants of allotments, nine 
of them north of High Street, on the west side of the 
Springfield road, and another portion of them were the 
next summer located in the vicinity of the sawmill, south 
of it, on the continuation of Feather Street. 

In 1681, the committee made six allotments to individ- 
uals, and one for school purposes. Their last official meet- 
ing previous to their resignation, was held January 2, 
1681 - 2. At this meeting they made sundry grants of 
land to individual settlers increasing their previous grants, 
or special allotments for their sons ; also to several other 
persons who never settled here. Having at a previous pe- 
riod set apart four hundred acres of land for a compensa- 
tion for their services, they at this time reduced the appro- 
priation to three hundred acres, dividing it into specified 
grants to each of the survivors of the committee, and 
to the heirs of those deceased. Lieut. Thomas Cooper 



38 

one of the committee was slain by the Indians, October 5, 
1675, the day they burnt Springfield ; and Capt. Elizur 
Holyoke died February 6, 1675-6.* 

These first grants consisted of allotments (as they were 
termed) of land of from forty, fifty, sixty, or eighty acres, 
according to the rank or condition of the grantees. One 
acre of meadow or good swamp land to ten acres of up- 
land were allowed in addition to each man's grant. These 
were then considered the choice land of the township, the 
scarcity of which made the place, proverbially, "poor 
Stony-Brook." These grantees, their heirs and assigns, 
became, by virtue of these grants, the proprietors of the 
entire township, and the residue of the lands were, at a 
later period, from time to time, distributed among them. 

On the ninth of March, 1681 - 2, a general town meeting 
was convened in accordance with an order of the General 
Court passed at their session, held October 12, 1681, to 
organize the town, make choice of municipal officers, and 
discharge the committee, they being present. At this 
meeting, the first board of selectmen in Suffield, was 
chosen. The members of it were : Lieut, Anthony Aus- 
tin, Sergeant Samuel Kent, Thomas Remington, senior, 
and Joseph Harmon. 

Lieut. Austin was chosen Town Clerk. He was after- 
ward annually re-elected to this office till his death, Au- 
gust 22, 1708, with the exception of the year 1688, when 
he was chosen Commissioner. He was the first who is 



* Springfield Records. 



39 

known to have taught a public school in this town. A 
humble monument remains to mark the place of his sepul- 
ture. Long' ma}' it be cherished with respect, as sacred to 
the memory of one who appears to Lave been honored by 
his compeers of that day. 

From the first organization of the town to the present 
time, there has been a regular annual succession of muni- 
cipal officers elected to conduct its prudential and civil af- 
fairs. The original grant for the plantation specified its 
limits to be six miles square ; but upon surveying the 
boundaries, it was found that Westfield extended into the 
north-west part of this territory; and to remedy this the 
northern line, after bending to the southern extremity of 
Westfield, was, together with the southern line, extended 
west from the river seven and one half miles: 

In a few years, conflicting claims arose between Suffield 
on the one part, and Windsor and Simsbury on the other, 
with respect to the southern line of this town. This conten- 
tion was carried on with a considerable degree of acrimo- 
ny. In the mean time it was discovered that Suffield lay 
within the chartered limits of Connecticut, and thence 
arose a matter for adjustment between the colonies of 
Massachusetts and Connecticut. In 1711 commissioners 
were appointed by the two colonies for that purpose. In 
consideration of the town of Suffield, together with Enfield 
and Woodstock, having been settled under Massachusetts 
authority, they were continued under the jurisdiction of 
that colony, an equivalent of an equal amount of wild 



40 

lauds being granted to Connecticut. These lauds were 
mainly comprised within the present towns of Belcher- 
town and Pelham in Massachusetts. They were sold by 
Connecticut in 1727 and the avails bestowed toward the 
endowment of Yale College. The commissioners allowed 
the claim of Simsbury, thus dismembering the southwest 
corner of this town. The proprietors of Suffield believing 
they had been wronged by this decision, soon began to 
call upon the General Court for redress, and persevered in 
presenting their claim until 1732, when a tract of land six 
miles square was granted them, as an equivalent. This 
tract comprised a large portion of the present town of 
Blandford in Massachusetts. It was sold by the proprie- 
tors of Suffield in 1735 to Christopher Jacob Lawton, a 
son of John Lawton, one of the first settlers in this town. 
Notwithstanding Suffield had been settled under the ju- 
risdiction of Massachusetts, the inhabitants do not appear 
to have been satisfied with the decision which continued 
them there. As early as 1720, they voted to adopt meas- 
ures to come under the jurisdiction of Connecticut, and 
with the towns of Enfield, Somers, and Woodstock, contin- 
ued their exertions from time to time until it was effected 
in 1749. This has been called the revolt of the Massachu- 
setts towns in Connecticut. A late writer of the history of 
Western Massachusetts has stated that these towns had re- 
mained contented under the Massachusetts government, 
until the peace of Aix la Chapelle in 1748 found Massa- 
chusetts burdened witli taxes and a large debt, while Con- 



41 

necticut was comparatively easy in those respects, and 
ascribes this as the motive of their "revolt." Had he ex- 
amined our records he must have been convinced that it 
was a powerful cause indeed which could have influenced 
a community to such an extent, as to awaken them to 
take measures to escape its consequences some thirty years 
previous to its existence! It must at least, he conceded 
that the people of this town, at that day. possessed an un- 
usual degree of foresight. But when we consider the dif- 
ference of civil rights and privileges enjoyed by the two 
colonies, together with the local position of those towns, 
we believe we have a more substantial motive for their ac- 
tion than the taxes even of Massachusetts. 

It has been observed that the committee set apart an 
allotment of land for school purposes at an early day ; but 
it does not appear that anything further was done toward 
establishing such a privilege, until the organization of the 
town, when it was voted to invite a Mr. Trowbridge to 
teach school in Suffield, and to allow him ten pounds 
per annum for five years, besides the legal allowance from 
the scholars. There is no evidence that he came here, 
nor that anything further was done to establish a public 
school, until August, 1693, when they voted " to use their ut- 
most endeavour to procure a schoolmaster to teach children 
and youth to read, write and cypher." In January, 
1693-4 it was "voted to set up a free school for the edu- 
cation of children and youth," and that "ye school be 
6 



42 

kept in the most convenient place in Highe Street." " An- 
thony Austin senior, was chosen to be schoolmaster," and 
thirty pounds per annum were voted for his salary. In 
August, 1695, a renewal of this vote was made ; at the 
same time there are intimations, that no school had then 
been commenced. In March 1G95- 6, action was again 
had toward setting up a school, and Anthony Austin sen- 
ior, at this time expresses his reluctant acceptance of the 
office of teacher " soe farr as to experiment for one year," 
and to commence on the first of May next ensuing. It is 
probable that the first public school ever opened in Suf- 
field, was that commenced on the first of May 1696, with 
Anthony Austin senior for its principal. 

In 1702 a school-house was commenced. This was six- 
teen by twenty feet, with walls six feet high. It was 
voted to have it fit for use by the last of October. After 
this, provision was made from time to time, for the main- 
tenance of a school, and though votes for that purpose 
were often modified and rescinded, it is certain that one 
was irregularly, at least sustained. The principle of tax- 
ing property, fur the support of schools, was then main- 
tained, though, as now, opposed by some. This was the 
beginning of school privileges in this place. Children and 
youth of Suffield, think of that little school-room, sixteen 
feet by twenty feet, for the whole town, and the one in- 
structor in reading, writing, and cyphering ; and compare 



43 

the privileges of that day, with those of the present time 
which you enjoy. 

We have previously stated that in 1679, Mr. John Young- 
love was invited to come and settle here in the ministry. 
The Act of the General Court authorizing a plantation 
here, required the settlement and maintenance of a minis- 
ter of the Gospel in the plaee ; but it does not appear that 
anything had been done, or at least, nothing effectual 
toward the accomplishment of this object, until this time. 
Mr. Younglove came here sometime during that year, or 
early in 1680. He was the first minister in the town, 
though perhaps never ordained, as no church was organ- 
ized here until sometime after his decease. He had 
preached at Quabaog (Brooldield, Massachusetts,) for 
sometime previous to Philip's War. After the destruction 
of that settlement by the Indians in 1675, he went to Had- 
ley and taught the town or grammar school, till he was 
invited to Suffield. He continued here until his decease 
June 3, 1600. Of him as a minister, little is known ; he 
was no doubt an educated man, though it is not known 
that he was a graduate of any college, his name not being 
among those of the graduates of Harvard, then the only 
college in America. Mr. Younglove left a widow and 
seven children, four sons and three daughters ; one daugh- 
ter had died previous to his decease. His descendants are 
among us to this day, though the family name has not been 
represented here for a long time, Mrs. Sarah Younglove, 



44 

widow of Mr. Younglove survived him near twenty years ; 
she died January 17, 1709 - 10. Their remains were depos- 
ited — where ? Perhaps beneath our feet, at least near this 
hallowed spot.* No monument exists to remind us and 
our children of the first minister of the town. Citizens of 
Nuffield, how long shall it he, that this may he said ? 

In May, 1690, one week before Mr. Younglove's de- 
cease, it was voted by the inhabitants of the town to in- 
vite a Mr. Stevens, then a schoolmaster in Northampton, 
to come here to engage in the work of the ministry At 
this time they speak of their unhappy dissensions, and of 
their need of being again united " together in peace 
and love." These dissensions had arisen during Mr. 
Younglove's ministry, and as early as 1687 it had been 
thought expedient, in order to put an end to them, to em- 
ploy him in the ministry no longer than till the expiration 
of his year, which would take place in the next ensuing 
May. He however was continued until May preceding 
his death in 1690. But his removal, as the sequel will 
show, did not prove to be an effectual remedy ; the disease 
lay to deep to be eradicated by such outward applications. 

It does not appear that Mr. Stevens accepted their invi- 
tation ; but Mr. George Phillips, son of Rev. Samuel 
Phillips of Rowley, Massachusetts, came here sometime 
during that year, and preached until the spring of 1692. 

* The present meeting-house stands in part upon the old burying-place, covering 
a number of graves. 



45 

Mr. Phillips afterward settled in Brookhaveii on Long 
Island. It is said of him, "though a good man, it is 
thought that he was too much addicted to facetiousness 
ami wit."* 

July 8, 1692, it was voted to invite Rev. Messrs. Stod- 
dard of Northampton, Taylor of Westfield, Mather of 
Windsor, and Brewer of Springfield, to give "their advice 
and eounsell who they shall judge may he a likely and 
suitable person to dispence the word of God to us, and 
after our bitterly to he lamented differences, to be a re- 
pairer and healer of our breaches, and instrumental to 
unite us and bring us againe into one." Mr. Stephen 
Mix of New Haven was invited and came here in the 
spring of 1693, but did not remain long. August 1, 1693, 
the people voted an invitation to Rev. Nathaniel Clap to 
settle with them in the ministry, " promising by God's as- 
sistance to carry towards him in all respects becoming 
christians, and to submit themselves to him as their minis- 
ter according to the rules of the Gospell." They also 
voted to give him a salary of sixty pounds per annum and 
his firewood; and for his settlement, "a dwelling house 
with a porch, the house containing about forty and two 
foot in length, twenty foot in breadth, and fourteen foot ' 
between joynts," together with a home lot of twenty acres 
of land, on which were " about two acres planted to an 
orchard." Also eighty acres of land elsewhere. This call 

* Allen's American Biographical Dictionary. 



46 

to Mr. Clap was renewed in October 1693, and in April, 

1694, and again in February 1694 - 5. But notwithstand- 
ing thus earnestly and repeatedly called, Mr. Clap did not 
respond to their wishes,* and the inhabitants of Snffield 
were under the necessity of seeking a pastor elsewhere. 

Accordingly, under date of August 1, 1695, just two 
years after the first, and about six months after the last 
call to Mr. Clap, we find that the people in town meeting 
assembled, adopted the following preamble and resolu- 
tion : — " It having pleased God in his Providence to in- 
cline the heart of Mr. Benjamin Ruggles to come and give 
us a visit ; soe that we for some sabbaths past have had a 
taste of his labours and proof of his abilities and accom- 
plishment for the work of the ministry to the good likeing, 
satisfaction, and content of us his auditours. "We there- 
fore the inhabitants of Suffield being legally warned and 
orderly convened or assembled together the first of August 

1695, have joyntly and unanimously agreed (and by a full 
and clear vote manifested the same) to give Mr. Benjamin 
Ruggles a eall to returne and dispence the things of God 
to us, and that in order to his continuance and settlement 
amongst us in due time may it please the Lord to encline 
his heart to embrace the same." 

To Mr. Ruggles for his salary &c., \v;is made essentially 
the same proposals as had been previously offered to Mr. 
Clap. This eall was renewed in May 1697, and March 1, 

* He settled in Newport, R. I. (Allen's Biographical Dictionary.) 



47 

1697-8, Mr. Ruggles having made some proposals to the 
town in order to his settlement, they were '•after some de- 
bate " accepted. 

At this time the Court of Quarter Sessions addressed 
the following communication to the people of Suffield: 

Springfield. March 1, 1G98. 
To the Inhabitants of the Town of Suffield. 

Gentlemen : — The Quarter Sessions of the Peace, now sitting at 
Springfield, having an intimation of some differences and dissatisfac- 
tions among yourselves referring to the full settling of the Rev. Mr. 
Benjamin Ruggles as your minister to dispense the word of God to you 
and to carry on the work of Christ in that great and weighty affair and 
concern, which hath a great influence unto the welfare benefit and ad- 
vantage of your place and all the inhabitants thereof, both in temporal 
and spiritual respects, and therefore ought to be well weighed and 
seriously considered with humble, sensible and penitent application to 
God for guidance and direction ; and inasmuch as the law of this 
Province gives a particular advice and conclusion in your case as it is 
circumstanced you having no settled church of Christ in your town, 
the law is express that the major part of such a town, agreeing, taking 
or obtaining the advice of three orthodox ministers pointing and direct- 
ing to a man most suitable, such one to be the minister for such a 
place, and such a town engaged to attend and maintain him, and al- 
though some particular persons in the town may have some objections 
as to circumstances of qualifications or otherwise, which we judge 
ought at this juncture to be overlooked and laid by, and all persons 
readily and willingly comply and unanimously agree to renew your 
addresses unto Mr. Ruggles, fully to settle him with you in that great 
work ; as also that you endeavor to optain the help and direction of 
the Rev. Mr. Stoddard, Mr. Taylor and Mr. Brewer, and such others 
as you may see meet to call and invite to meet at your place to advise 
and persuade Mr. Ruggles, as also to advise the people to a full settle- 
ment of this so great an affair which this court do earnestly advise to. 
Such an opportunity of advantage once lost, may not easily be recov- 
ered again. And therefore being very desirous of your welfare and 
good settlement in this weighty matter, and that the blessing and pres- 



48 

ence of the Great Shepherd of Israel may be with and increase you in 
all respects, that God may be glorified by you, and you may find in- 
crease in grace, knowledge, love, peace, and that the God of peace 
may settle, stablish and unite you and all things to his glory and your 
welfare, is the desire and prayer of this court to which, 

We subscribe, this '2nd of March, 1698, 

Per JOHN PYNCHOX, Clerk. 

In accordance with the advice of the Court, Rev. Messrs. 
Stoddard, Taylor, Williams, Brewer and Mather were in- 
vited to meet in the place the last Tuesday in April, 1698, 
as council for ordination and settlement of Mr. Ruggles in 
the ministry here. Although the record of the organiza- 
tion of the first church in Nuffield is lost, yet it is evident 
that this transaction was carried into effeet at the same 
time Mr. Ruggles was ordained. The first incipient step 
we know of toward the accomplishment of such a purpose 
was taken March 20, 1693-4, when, in accordance with 
the advice of Rev. Messrs. Taylor and Mather, a day of 
" humiliation " was observed with reference to " embody- 
ing together in a church way." But it appears that this 
purpose was not then effected, for the letter from the 
Court of Quarter Sessions, dated March 1, 1698, express- 
ly informs us that no church then existed in the town ; 
hut within two years after this last date, we learn from the 
records of tin' first church in Westfield that there was then 
a church existing here. We therefore arrive at this con- 
clusion : — that the first Congregational Church in Sufheld 
was organized, and Rev. Benjamin Ruggles ordained and 
constituted its first pastor, by the council convened here for 



49 

that purpose on Tuesday, April 26, 1698. Tims, after a 
period of some twenty-eight years after the commencement 
of the settlement of the town, was the Church of Christ 
and the regular ministration of the privileges and ordi- 
nances of the Gospel established here. 

Mr. Ruggles was a native of Roxbury, Massachusetts. 
He was son of John and Sarah Ruggles, of Roxbury, and 
grandson of John and Barbara Ruggles, who emigrated 
from England in 1635. Of his grandfather it is said that 
he was a son of a "godly father," that "he joined the 
church soon after his coming," and that "he was a 
lively Christian, known to many of the church in Old 
England, when they met socially together." Mr. Rug- 
gles was born August 11, 1676, graduated at Harvard 
College 1693, came to Suffield in 1695 when he was 
hut nineteen years of age, and was ordained before the 
completion of his twenty-second year. He departed this 
life September 5, 1708, 0. S., at thirty-two years of age. His 
pilgrimage on earth was short, his years in the ministry 
few, yet if we measure his life and his ministry by its use- 
fulness, and good accomplished, we are constrained to say 
of him that his is a long life, and his ministry is full of 
years. "We believe that the teachings of Providence, as 
learned from records of the past, call upon us as churches, 
and as a people, to render thanksgiving to the Great Shep- 
herd of Israel that, at that time, he did send the youthful 
Benjamin, armed with the sling of faith, and the " smooth 
stones " of Gospel truth, to go forth in the name of the 



50 

" Lord of hosts " and slay the Goliath of dissension, and 
anarchy that had crept in among onr fathers threatening 
for a time, the destruction of that fair inheritance which 
has been transmitted to us. So effectually was the spirit 
of discord and contention laid and kept in subjection after- 
ward, through the blessing of God upon His preached 
word, that we hear little more of it in this town for nearly 
half a century. 

Mr. Ruggles married with Mercy Woodbridge, Novem- 
ber 19, 1696 : — She was a daughter of Rev. John and Mrs. 
Abigail Woodbridge of Wethersfield, and a grand daugh- 
ter of Gov. William Leete. Mrs. Ruggles died June 28, 
1707, leaving seven children, one an infant of six days. 
From them have arisen a numerous posterity, many of 
whom have rilled places of usefulness and honor both in 
State and in the church. Two were among the first com- 
pany of missionaries to the Sandwich Islands, who sailed 
from Boston October 23, 1819. " The righteous shall be 
in everlasting remembrance." 

It is not known from actual direct record who were the 
persons who constituted the membership of the church at 
its formation and during the period of Mr. Ruggles' minis- 
try. From evidence drawn from various sources, we have 
reason to believe, that in proportion to the population of 
the town, its membership was large. 

Rev. Ebenczer Devotion successor to Mr. Ruggles, in 
the pastoral office, came to Sufrield sometime in June or 
July 1709, and was ordained June 28, 1710. Mr. Devo- 



51 

tion it is supposed was a native of Dorchester, Massachu- 
setts; he graduated at Harvard College in 1707. He con- 
tinued in the discharge of the pastoral duties of this 
church until his decease, April 11, 1741, at the age of fifty- 
seven years, and in the thirty-first year of 'his ministry. 
During this ministry, three hundred and thirty-four persons 
were admitted to the communion of the church, three 
hundred and seven by profession; one hundred and twen- 
ty of which were admitted in the year 1735. But one 
year of his ministry (1717) passed without some additions 
to the church. 

Mr. Devotion appears to have been a fervent christian ; 
and a faithful, beloved and successful Pastor. He was 
thrice married ; first, October 4, 1710 with Hannah Breck, 
daughter of Capt. John Breck of Dorchester, Massachu- 
setts. Mrs. Hannah Devotion died March 23, 1719, aged 
thiity-two years, leaving three children a son and two 
daughters. Mr. Devotion married a second time June 4, 
1720, with Naomi Taylor daughter of Rev. Edward and 
Mrs. Ruth Taylor of Westfield, Massachusetts. Mrs. 
Naomi Devotion died August G, 1739, aged forty-four 
years, leaving six children, one son and five daughters. 
Mr. Devotion married a third time October 27, 1740 with 
Mrs. Sarah Hebard who survived him. His sons both en- 
tered the ministry, and were of considerable eminence.' 
The eldest, Ebenezer, settled in Scotland, a parish in 
Windham, Connecticut, and the youngest, John, settled 
in the third parish in Saybrook, Connecticut. 



52 

Ecclesiastical affairs of a secular nature relating to min- 
isters' salaries, building houses for public worship, &c, were 
conducted by the town until 1740, when it was divided 
into two parishes, and since that time such affairs have 
been conducted by the several Ecclesiastical societies. 

What has been called the great awakening of the 
eighteenth century, occurred just at the close of Mr. Devo- 
tion's ministry, resulting in the gathering into this church 
of more than two hundred persons. 

Rev. Ebenezer Gay, D. D., successor to Mr. Devotion, 
came to Suffield in 1741, and preached here the first time 
August 9th of that year. He was ordained January 13, 
1742, nine months subsequent to Mr. Devotion's decease. 

The division of the town into two parishes, became the 
cause of dissension in the church which began to develope 
itself soon after Mr. Gay's settlement. It was respecting 
the right of the members of the church residing in the 
west Parish to act in church affairs, some acknowledging 
such a right, while others contended against it. A ques- 
tion, which at the present day would present no difficulty 
of solution ; but then produced discord which could not be 
allayed until an arrangment was made by which the or- 
ganization of the second Congregational Church was ef- 
fected, November 10, 1743. 

Beside this difficulty, which was thus disposed of, anoth- 
er element of discord began its development in this church 
about this time. It has been observed, that over two hun- 
dred persons had been gathered into the church as the 



53 

fruits of tlic great revival. It can readily be perceived, 
that among this number, together with the previous mem- 
bership there must have been a great variety of natural 
temperament, ability, and christian attainment. While 
there were those, who were strong in faith, yet humble in 
spirit; there were also the weak, the unstable, and yet 
others, who like Diotrephes loved the pre-eminence. 
Added to this, the Davenport School, so called, had then 
developed itself over the land ; its followers claiming what 
they termed, freedom to exercise gifts, or in other words, 
the freedom of all classes and both sexes, to speak at all 
times in public worship, as they thought the Spirit moved 
them ; and these exercises accompanied with responses, 
groanings, hallooings and grotesque gesturings. These 
practices began to be advocated to some extent by mem- 
bers in this church. The result was. tl e members soon be- 
gan to be arrayed into parties ; Dr. Gay with the major part 
of the church taking the strong conservative ground of the 
Cambridge School, while quite a number in the minority 
under the head of Joseph Hastings, afterward the first 
pastor of the Separates, advocated the opposite or Daven- 
port principle. Thus originated that schism which resulted 
in constituting the Separate Church in this town. As 
early as October 10, 1742, at the close of public worship 
on the sabbath, Joseph Hastings arose and expressed him- 
self in a loud voice in words of this import, " Come forth 
you Xicodemuses,. you ministers and magistrates, you 
bloody persecutors." For this and for expressing a wish 



54 

that " the church was broke all to pieces," he was brought 
under the discipline of the church. For his expressions 
on the sabbath, the church by vote reproved him. To his 
remarks with respect to the church; he made an explana- 
tory statement, that he had said " y 4 he tho* y e divisions 
among us were made or occasioned by y e spirit of God ; 
and if he so wish'd they were greater." The church ac- 
cepted this explanation, and the second charge was over- 
looked. In 1747 Mr. Hastings with a number of the 
members withdrew in an irregular manner, and set up 
meeting by themselves. They were requested by the 
ehurch to give their reasons in writing for so doing ; this 
they refused to do. They were then permitted to do it 
verbally, but their reasons not being satisfactory to the 
church, it was by vote declared March 9, 1748, "that this 
church are of opinion that they are no longer properly 
members of this church." 

Dr. Gay continued the acting pastor until March 6, 
1793, when his son Rev. Ebenezer Gay, Junior, was or- 
dained. Dr. Gay died March 7, 1796 in the seventy- 
eighth year of his age, and fifty-fifth of his ministry. 

Rev. Ebenezer Gay, Junior, continued the acting pastor 
until December 13, 1826, and senior pastor until his de- 
cease January 1, 1837, in the seventy-first year of his age, 
and forty-fourth of his ministry. 

Rev. Joel Mann was installed pastor December 13, 1826, 
and dismissed at his request, December 1, 1829. Rev. 
Henry Robinson was installed June 1, 1831, dismissed 



55 

April 18, 1837. Rev. Asahel C. Washburn was installed 
January 3, 1838, dismissed July 23, 1851. Rev. John R. 
Miller, the present pastor, was installed December 28, 
1853. All those are now living, and by the good Provi- 
dence of God are permitted to be present to join with us 
in the exercises of this day. 

There has been several periods as indicated by our 
records when God has appeared to bless this eh arch with 
the more special presence of His Holy Spirit. In 1721 r 
fourteen persons were received by the church on their pro- 
fession of faith; in 1728, thirty-six; in 1735, one hundred 
and twenty: in 1741, one hundred and seventy-six; in 
1742, thirty-one; in 1708, ten; in 1822, sixty-five. 

Since that time, these periods have been still more fre- 
quent until the present : fifty-seven have been received into 
the fellowship of the church the current year. The whole 
number admitted since Mr. Devotion's ordination is about 
one thousand two hundred and fifty. The present number 
of members is about two hundred and fifty. 

The second Congregational Church was organized No- 
vember 10, 1743. Their first pastor was Rev. John Gra- 
ham, who was ordained October 22, 1746. Mr. Graham 
was succeeded by Rev. Daniel Waldo, the venerable man 
whom God has given strength to continue, and be present 
with us this day, in the ninety-seventh year of his age. 
Mr. Waldo was ordained May 23, 1702. Rev. J. Mix suc- 
ceeded him. Frequent changes have since been made of 
incumbents of the pastoral office in that church. 



56 

It has been stated that Joseph Hastings and others-,, 
withdrew from the first church in 1747; They were or- 
ganized into what was called the Separate Church, and 
Joseph Hastings was ordained their first pastor, April 18, 
1750. They built a house for public worship in 1762.* 
Mr. Hastings having either withdrawn from them or been 
dismissed, Rev. Israel Holley was ordained and became 
their pastor June 29, 1763. This church and society was 
dissolved about 1784. Mr. Holley was afterward appro- 
bated by the Hartford North Association and preached a 
few years in Granby, Connecticut, and in Cornwall. He 
then returned to Suffield where he died June 28, 1809, 
aged eighty-two years. 

A number of persons who for a time were connected 
with the Separates, were about the year 1769, constituted 
the first Baptist Church, with Rev. Joseph Hastings, pastor. 
He was succeeded by his son Rev. John Hastings, in 1775. 
Mr. Joseph Hastings died November 4, 1785, aged eighty- 
two years. Mr. John Hastings died March 17, 1811, aged 
sixty-eight. He was succeeded by Rev. Asahel Morse, who 
died June 10, 18-38, aged sixty-six. Since that time, some 
ten different persons have officiated in the pastoral rela- 
tion to this church. Its present membership is ninety. 

The second Baptist Church was constituted in 1805. 
Its pastors have been numerous, none having continued 
but a few years, except its present one, Rev. Dwight Ives, 

* This house was removed to Agawam, and is yet occupied by the Congregational 
Church in the East Parish. 



57 

D. D., who entered upon those duties in connection with 
this church in 1839. Its entire membership has been 
about fifteen hundred. During the time its present pastor 
has been with them eight hundred have been added to it. 
" The present number after a thorough revision of the list 
is six hundred and fifteen."* 

There is a small Methodist Episcopal Society in the 
West Parish, but of their history we can give no particu- 
lar account. 

The first birth, and the first death which occurred in 
Suffield, according to the Hampshire County Records were 
in the family of Judah and Alary Trumble. John, born 
March 5, 1674, and Ebenezer died September 23, 1675. 
The first marriage was that of Thomas Taylor and Abigail 
Roe, June 15, 1678. The family cognomen of Trumble 
and Taylor, as descending from Judah Trumble and 
Thomas Taylor, has become extinct, in this town. 

It might be interesting to take a brief retrospective view 
of the history of the original families of the town, but our 
time will not permit. 

Our ancient burial place claims, at least a passing no- 
tice. The first mention of it in our records, incidentally 
occurs under date of March 6, 1082-3. In April 1684, it 
was " voted to fence in y e burying place." This was the 
beautiful portion of ground, to which our steps have this 
day been directed. Beneath the turf, our feet has pressed ; 
under this sacred house, in which we are now assembled ; 

* Statement by Dr. Ives. 



58 

have long since been deposited, the mortal remains of those 
who first encountered, and began the subjugation of the 
forest that once waved in unbroken grandeur over these 
hills and dales. A few humble monuments remain to re- 
mind us of them ; let those dilapidated, moss covered 
stones be cherished as mementos of the past, and as we 
tread the soil that rests upon the unmarked graves of 
others, let us listen to the silent voice that calls upon us 
for reflection. 

' ' Hark ! how the sacred calm that breathes around 
Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease ; 
In still small accents whispering from the ground, 
A grateful earnest of eternal peace."* 

But those are not all whose remains have here been de- 
posited. Their children, and their children's children 
unto the sixth and seventh generation, together with the 
stranger that has come within their gates, and humble Af- 
rican, once held in bondage under their roofs ; here, have 
rested from their labors, and together await a resurrection 

day. 

" The breezy call of incense breathing morn, 

The swallow twittering from the straw built shed, 
The cock's shrill clarion or the echoing horn, 

No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed."* 

Too much has this sacred spot been neglected. Genera- 

t idii after generation have here been laid in the dust, and 

it would have seemed, that survivors would have cherished 

it, with deep respect. But how has it been ? There are 

many here who can well remember the time, when the 

* Gray. 



59 

best method that was devised to take care of it, was to 
convert it into a sheep pasture ; and it is of hut very re- 
cent date that a man would he lost from sight amid the 
wild, unsightly shrubbery that was allowed to flourish 
upon some portions of it. The original ground had be- 
come filled with graves, to the extent that the sexton's 
-padc in preparing a resting place for those recently de- 
parted, often disturbed the remains of those who had gone 
before. But thanks: improvement has been made ; sheep 
can now Hud pasture elsewhere; unsightly bushes, have 
in a measure given place to ornamental trees, and through 
public and private enterprise, tin; area of the enclosure, 
has been enlarged. Still there is scope for further exer- 
tion : public opinion should he directed with strong repro- 
bation against the desecration of those grounds, by the 
reckless pranks, of the thoughtless ; the hand of cultivated 
taste, should be employed to improve and protect those 
precints, until it becomes a place where true, enlightened, 
christian refinement, may in sacred, cheerful, contempla- 
tion, recall to mind memories of those who have gone he- 
fore, consider the bourne, to which we are all hastening, 
and lifting up the eye of faith look with unwavering con- 
ridenee, toward the eternal rest of the pure in heart, ex- 
claiming, in fullness of joy, 

" O glorious horn- ! blest abode ! 
I shall be near, and like my God ; 
And flesh, and sin, no more control 
The sacred pleasures of the soul."* 

* Watts. 



60 

When the town was organized, there were about eighty 
proprietors settled in the place some sixty of them, with 
families ; one half of the names of those families are now 
extinct in this town.* At the time of Mr. Ruggles' ordi- 
nation, the number of families had increased to about sev- 
enty-five or eighty. This increase was mainly from fami- 
lies of first proprietors, but very few having come, or been 
admitted from other places. A large proportion of the 
first proprietors were children of the first emigrants from 



* Heads of families in Suffield, at its organization in 1682 
an asterisk (*) attached are now extinct in Suffield. 
Edward Allen, senior, deceased in 1696, j * John Lawton, deceased 
John Allen, moved to Deerfield, 
Capt. Anthony Austin, deceased 1708, 

* James Barker, moved to Springfield, 

* James Barlow, deceased 1690, 

* Thomas Barber, "' 

* John Barber, " 1690, 
John Burbank, senior, " 1709, 

* Edward Burleson, " 1698, 

* Samuel Bushe, moved to Westfield, 

* Isaac Cokebread, deceased 



Those surnames with 



* Thomas Copley, " 1712, 
~* Abraham Dibble, " 1690, 

* Joseph Eastman, " 1692, 

* Zerubbabel Tyler, " - — 

* John Filley, " ab't 1688, 

* David Froe, " 1710, 
Launcelot Granger, " 1689, 
Timothy Hale, " 1689, 
Joseph Harmon, " 1729, 

' Dea. Thos. Hanchet, " 1686, 
Thos. Hanchet, Jr., moved to Westfield, 

John Hanchet, deceased, 1744, 

Walter Halladay, " 1709, 

* John Hodge, " 

* Thomas Huscley, " 1721, 

* John Huggins, " 

* George Jeffery, " 1683, 

Serg't Samuel Kent, " 

James King, senior, " 1722, 



Samuel Lane, " 

* John Millington, " 

* John Mighill, senior, " 
Edmund Marshall, " 
Capt. George Norton, " 
Robert Old, " 
Timothy Palmer, " 
*Thomas Parsons, " 
*John Pengilley, " 

* William Pritchard, " 
Thomas Remington, " 
James Rising, senior, " 
Hughe Roe, " 
*John Scot, " 

* Joseph Segars, " 

* John Severans, " 
Thomas Spencer, " 
Victory Sykes, " 
Stephen Taylor, " 
Thomas Taylor, " 
James Taylor, " 
Jonathan Taylor, Jr., " 
*JudahTrumble, " 

* Joseph Trumble, " 

* Michael Towsley, " 

* Jonathan Winchill, " 

* David Winchill, " 

* Richard Woolworth, " 

* John Younglove, " 



1690, 



1732, 
1696, 
1728, 
1696, 
1701, 
1735, 

1721, 

1688, 
1689, 
1689, 
1740, 

1689, 
1708, 

1741, 

1726, 
1692, 
1684, 
1712, 
1715, 
1723, 
1696, 
1690. 



61 

England, who had settled in the neighboring towns of 
Hartford, Windsor and Springfield, and the more eastern 
towns of Rowley, Ipswich and Newbury, in Massachusetts. 
But few, if any of them were born in the old country, and 
all had grown up, amid the trials and deprivations of a 
pioneer- life in a wild unsubdued wilderness, separated 
from the civilized world, by the dark waves of the broad 
Atlantic. No steamships then, made their ten day voy- 
ages across the stormy ocean, conveying their precious 
freight of human beings, from continent to continent. Xo 
telegraphic cable lay beneath those wild waves, stretched 
from shore to shore, to conduct the magnetic flash freight- 
ed with intelligence of the transactions of either clime. 
The transports of those days, required weeks, and months 
i i i convey intelligence between transatlantic harbors. The 
wilderness around them was peopled with wild savage 
tribes, with whom they sometime had friendly intercourse, 
and then again were engaged in deadly conflict. 

Thus situated what must have been their physical, intel- 
lectual, and moral characters. Some perhaps may imagine, 
that separated as they were from the luxuries, and the 
concomitant temptations of civilized life, and having 
grown up under the influence of the strict religious train- 
ing of their puritan fathers and mothers, that the sons and 
daughters of that generation, must have been from their 
youth a godly race. But are there no moral dangers in a 
life of deprivation, [is well as in a life of plenty, or even 
luxury ? Is man anything but an erring, sinful creature. 



62 

in any situation, yet without the grace of God, the living 
vital principle, of true piety in the heart ? 

Subjected to toil and hardship, the children of the emi- 
grants, who survived the dangers of early life, under their 
circumstances, mostly no doubt, grew up a hardy, robust 
generation. Isolated as it were from mankind they im- 
bibed a self-reliant, independent spirit; but deprived of 
thorough educational priyileges, their minds were not de- 
veloped by the broad principles of true christian refine- 
ment. Trained under the strict discipline, and teachings 
of their puritan lathers, the seed of the word of truth was 
implanted in their hearts, but it needed the waterings < >f 
the Holy Spirit, and the effulgent vivifying beams of the 
Sun of Kighteousness, to cause it to bring forth its legiti- 
mate fruit. This work not having been developed in their 
hearts, to the casting out of that spirit of the world which 
seeks its own ; and to the engrafting in of the spirit of 
faith, and charity which seeks first the kingdom of God 
and his righteousness, they were not, like their fathers, 
prepared to, or rather did not appreciate the importance of 
establishing the ordinances of the Gospel at the very out- 
set or commeneement of their settlement in a new place. 
Hence we find a material difference in the history of 
many, at least, of the later, from that of the earlier towns 
of New England. 

With the puritan emigrants the church and pastor, ac- 
companied by the school and the teacher, were the prima- 
ry object sought; through the instrumentality of which, 



63 

they expected to establish civil, and religious liberty ; and 
receive the blessing of God, for themselves, and their pos- 
terity. Hence we find them established simultaneously 
with their settlement. 

But after the settlement of this town, a quarter of a cen- 
tury passes, ere the church with its pastor, sheds its genial 
influence over those who had here made their homes. 
The fathers of this town, did not, like the patriarch Abra- 
ham, at the first pitching of their tents, build there an al- 
tar unto the Lord. In this they erred, and for this, they 
suffered. Infidelity may scoff at this idea; but it needs no 
argument, to prove to the true christian, that the living 
church of Clirist is "the salt of the earth,*' and "the light 
of the world." 

Perhaps it will be said by some, that our fathers were 
poor. True indeed they were ; and were not theirs before 
them ? had they not suffered loss of worldly ease, that they 
might enjoy Christ's ordinances? And does it require the 
riches, or even a competency of this world's goods, to ena- 
ble man to obey the Divine command, "Do this in re- 
membrance of me." The truth is, those who truly cher- 
ish the spirit of Christ in their hearts, are ever ready to 
co-operate in setting up the Temple of God, wherever lie 
may cast their lot; which temple they are. 

But the good seed sown in the hearts of our fathers, was 
not to be lost, though choked for a time. The thorny 
cares of the world, were, by the dealings of an overruling 
Providence to be subdued, that the good seed might take 



64 

root in their hearts, and produce an abundant harvest. 
The divine precept " seek ye first the kingdom of God, 
and his righteousness," must be obeyed, God must be hon- 
ored, his church established, his ordinances cherished, and 
the way is prepared for the concomitant blessing, that 
what is needed of this world " shall be added unto you." 
Thus has God in his Providence dealt with our fathers. 
He has guided, watched over, and protected them ; and 
when they erred, like a kind father he corrected them ; 
when they trusted in themselves, He reminded them of 

• 

their dependance upon Him. When they looked unto 
Him, He blessed them ; and the inheritance has been 
transmitted to us. The church has come down to us with 
increased strength ; though clouds have at times arisen, 
and enveloped its beauties in darkness. Still the good 
Shepherd has watched over it, His beams have dispelled 
the darkness, and He has watered it from time to time, 
with the heavenly dews of his grace. 

And this has been accompanied with His temporal 
blessings. Family, educational, and civil privileges, have 
been continued and increased unto us. The wilderness has 
been changed to fruitful fields. These lonely pathways, 
with others of later date, are made cheerful with the pres- 
ence of the homes of the happy and the free, and all may 
enjoy the. privileges, of social, civil, and religious liberty. 
WTiat was once proverbially "poor mean Stony-Brook," 
has become, as noted, for its wealth, fertility, and beauty. 

To accomplish this, it has required the instrumentality 



65 

of the toil of fathers and mothers, followed by that of their 
sons and daughters, through succeeding generations. Our 
ancestors encountered and in a measure overcome, that 
wilderness which once overspread this now fair domain. 
The sons, aided by the encouraging, and co-operating hand 
of the daughters, took up the work, and carried it onward. 
And when the savage foe, urged on, to accomplish the am- 
bitious designs of princes and their abettors, invaded the 
land ; then they stood up with their fellow citizens in its 
defence, and the shores of Lakes George and Champlain 
witnessed their valor. When the liberties of their country 
called for defence against the encroachments of a fratricid- 
al foe, Dorchester,* and Brookline Heights, Saratoga, and 
Oriskany ; Chippewa and Lundy's Lane received the trust 
of the sacrifice of their blood. Nor have the sons of Suf- 
field been found wanting in the more peaceful scenes of 
usefulness. The whole country from the Canadas, to Mex- 
ico, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, has been a field for 
their enterprise. The councils of state, and of justice, 
have witnessed their ability and felt its influence. Nor has 
the pulpit been altogether neglected by them, but many 
have stood up in it, and proclaimed the word of life. 

And now fellow citizens, perhaps it may be thought 
that we are going beyond the proper sphere of remark for 
this occasion ; but may we not have your candid indul- 
gence, and patient attention, while we call upon you to be 

*It may appear somewhat singular to some, to refer to Dorchester Heights in this 
connection; but our records and history justify this reference. 

9 



66 

mindful to improve this inheritance which you enjoy : not 
merely for your own selfish purposes of acquisition, or in- 
dulgence and ease ; but to remember that " unto whom- 
soever much is given, of him shall be much required," and 
that " he that watereth, shall be watered also himself." To 
do this it is necessary, first to cultivate the man ; not a 
part merely, but the whole man, in all his faculties, physi- 
cal, intellectual, and moral ; the body and the soul. 
Man with his physical nature only developed, is but a 
brute, with his physical and intellectual only, he sinks into 
practical infidelity, and with his moral nature cultivated 
alone, he becomes an enthusiast : thus in either case, fail- 
ing of coming to those pure and satisfying enjoyments, 
which our Heavenly Father has prepared for the pure in 
heart. 

There are some things among us, as a community, 
which stand in the way and hinder the full development 
of the man, and therefore need reformation or removal. 
We will just refer to some of them. One is, we labor too 
much, or rather our labor is too much misapplied. Indus- 
try is a noble virtue, and when directed in proper chan- 
nels, and applied to right objects, by that wisdom which 
is from above, it becomes conducive to the development 
of all the faculties of man, both of body and soul. But 
industry, when prostituted to be subservient to the mere 
love of gain, or the gratification of the appetite for ambi- 
tion, luxury, and show, becomes an evil, sinking ourselves 
by it, and others with us, to the condition of slaves ; do- 



67 

ing this we "labor for that which satisfyeth not." Some 
perhaps, will say, they must toil incessantly to support 
their families. But is not this plea, too often made to cov- 
er the sin of covetousness, or some other evil, and at the 
most favorable view is it not practical infidelity, an entire 
distrust of the teachings of our Lord. 

Another evil among us is, that idea of utility, prevailing 
to a great extent, which can discover nothing valu- 
able, in any enterprise, having in view the development 
of true cultivated taste. The beautiful is practically des- 
pised. We boast, and that not without reason, of our 
beautiful town ; but what do we do, to enhance its beau- 
ties ; look for example at our naturally beautiful common ; 
made a gymnasium of at one end, and a gravel pit at the 
other, while throughout its length it is traversed with 
pathways at every one's fancied convenience, and not a tree 
or a shrub, to decorate its naked bosom, or cast a cooling 
shade from summer's burning sun. Enough is expended 
upon our residences, to make them homes to be cherished 
in the memories of our children, and admired by the stran- 
ger, were they not so destitute of the lineaments, and the 
surroundings, of true taste. It would not perhaps cost five 
hundred dollars to make a duplicate of the most truly taste- 
ful home in our town. It is not the pecuniary means that 
is wanting, but the cultivation of those faculties of the soul 
which would lead us to discover beauties, worthy of our 
attention in all the works of God, whether accomplished 



68 

by his direct agency, or through the instrumentality of the 
cultivated taste of man. 

Another evil is our religion ; start not, brother, we say 
our religion ; not the pure self-denying religion which is 
of God ; but that which seeks to satisfy conscience, with 
an outward observance of duty in formal worship and or- 
dinances, while the heart is given to the world. 

Fellow Citizens, be not offended though we speak in 
plain language. It is not the true friend that flattereth 
with his lips ; but he that is a friend indeed, will speak the 
words of truth and soberness, though they be not smooth 
words. And may we not hope, yea, may we not see a re- 
formation from some of these evils. 

Let not incessant toil so wear down your physical na- 
tures, and benumb the finer faculties of the soul, as to dis- 
qualify you for high, and pure enjoyments of domestic and 
social life. Let not the love of gain so blind your moral 
vision, that you cannot find happiness for yourself, in the 
welfare of your fellow man. Cherish the love of the beau- 
tiful in your hearts. Manifest it in your fields, in your 
homes, and on your person ; not by imitating the gaudy 
display of fashion and luxury, but be guided by the aspi- 
rations of a pure and cultivated mind. Form associations 
for the development of these qualities in your social rela- 
tions, let them improve your public grounds with decora- 
tions of nature and of art. Seek gravel elsewhere than on 
yourjpublic Common, it is useful but there is an abundance 
.of it in your hill-sides. Boys should play, it is delightful, 



69 

and healthful for them to play, but there is a place, as 
well as a time for that exercise ; that place is not the most 
prominent of our public grounds. Let those public 
grounds be adorned with trees, that when a few years 
hence you may assemble to commemorate the two hun- 
dredth anniversary of this town, you may have before you 
the promise of future beauty, and when your children's 
children may assemble to commemorate the three hun- 
dredth anniversary, they may rise up and call you blessed. 
Above all, cherish piety in the heart, that pure, and 
holy principle, which elevates the soul in heavenward as- 
pirations, of supreme devotion to God, and good will to 
man. Then you will be truly prepared, to enjoy the bless- 
ings, which our Heavenly Father showers upon us here, 
and look forward in joyful anticipation, to that rest which 
he has prepared for those who " have washed their robes, 
and made them white in the blood of the lamb."" 



The following words were* sung by the choir ; 

" The Lord is great ! ye hosts of Heaven adore him, 
And ye who tread this earthly ball ; 

In holy songs rejoice aloud before him, 
And shout his praise who made you all. 

The Lord is great — his majesty how glorious ! 

Resound his praise from shore to shore ; 
O'er sin, and death, and hell, now made victorious, 

He rules and reigns forevermore. 



70 



The Lord is great — his mercy how abounding ! 

Ye angels strike your golden chords ! 
Oh praise our God ! with voice and harp resounding, 

The King of kings, and Lord of lords !" 



Benediction by Rev. D. Ives, D. D. 



FOURTH DIVISION. 

The storm increased to such a degree that the idea of 
holding the collation in the tent was given up ; and the 
vestry of the Second Baptist Church having been kindly 
offered for the purpose, the procession was formed, and 
proceeded to that place, where provision, the best that cir- 
cumstances would allow, had been made ; the tables were 
tastefully decorated with flowers, and bountifully loaded 
with " creature comforts." 

The President of the day called on Rev. J. R. Miller, 
the present pastor of the church, to invoke the blessing of 
God, which he did in the following words : — 

Holy and Eternal Father, we adore Thee for Thy greatness and 
glory ; and we love Thee for Thy condescension and grace. We ac- 
knowledge with gratitude Thy great mercies to us, in granting us so 
goodly an heritage ; in securing to us civil and religious liberty, 
wholesome laws, and institutions of learning ; and in giving us that 
blessed hope through Thy dear Son, which adds to all our other bless- 
ings the prospects of a blissful immortality. We thank Thee for the 
good of past years, and for the prospect of good in years to come. We 
thank Thee for this day, and these interesting services and friendly 
greetings. Let Thy blessing rest upon us, and upon the provision here 
made for our temporal wants. May this day be crowned with Thy 
rich benediction, be greatly promotive of true religion in us, and 
abundantly conducive to Thine honor and glory, which we ask in the 
worthy name of Christ our Lord. Amen. 



71 

After the collation, the President said : 

Gentlemen and Ladies : — My position to-day renders it proper 
that I should say a few words in behalf of the First Congregational 
Church, and of the people generally of Suffield. A few months since, 
a lady, a descendant of Rev. Benjamin Ruggles, met a gentleman of 
this place, accidentally, in the grave-yard. She made to him the 
proffer of twenty-five dollars toward a monument for her male ances- 
tor, and the repair of that of his wife. This fact was communicated to 
the church, and very cordially entertained. # A committee was appoint- 
ed to carry the project into effect. Hence the noble monument which 
adorns our cemetery to-day. 

It has long been in contemplation to revive the early history of this 
church and town, for many years very nearly identical. The gentle- 
man who has given us the historical address to-day was appointed to 
collect the scattered fragments, recorded and traditional, into a connect- 
ed form. This occasion seemed a fitting one to present to his fellow 
townsmen the result of his investigations. The invitation was given 
to the sons and daughters of Suffield, who have gone out from us, to 
return and participate in this celebration. We rejoice that so large a 
number have found it convenient with their other engagements to re- 
spond to this invitation. We are happy to see so many from abroad 
present to-day. 

In behalf of this church and of the citizens of Suffield, I tender you 
a hearty welcome. We welcome you to your native town. We wel- 
come you to this occasion. And we cordially welcome you to our 
homes and to our most cheerful hospitalities. Specially invited guests, 
who have honored us with your presence, you too we bid a cordial wel- 
come. Welcome all. 

As I am wholly unaccustomed to public speaking, it will not be ex- 
pected I shall trespass on your patience. Nor does it devolve upon 
me to-day to make speeches, but to call out others to make them.. 
There are those present to follow who will both please and instruct. 

The President then presented the name of Rev. John 
Younglove ; the first minister of Suffield. 

Mr. Moses C. Younglove of Cleveland, Ohio, respond- 
ed as follows : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — Being an entire stranger among you, 
and a stranger to the scenes around me, I have no personal sympathies 



72 

or local recollections of which I can speak. But being a son of the 
Pilgrims, and standing here among their children, I can speak of them 
and of their deeds, and hope for a response from every heart. But I 
should say to you that public speaking is not my vocation, and even 
if it were so, I am unused to such a presence as this — these gray 
heads, these venerable forms ! These admonish me that here I should 
keep silence — that it is far more becoming for me to stand among you 
an humble listener, than to occupy this place as a speaker. But this to 
me is a most interesting occasion ; my heart is full of it, and impels 
me to add my humble testimony to the accumulated evidence of the 
sterling virtues of the Puritans. 

In other places, and on other occasions, I have felt called upon to 
defend their memories from aspersion. But here, standing among 
their children, with my feet mingling in their sacred dust, it would be 
an insult to their memories, and to you, even to suppose that such a 
necessity could exist. 

Now if you will travel back with me through th»% long vista of 
years, to the time when our fathers stood on the ground which we now 
occupy, and inaugurated the events we meet here to commemorate, we 
can talk as friends, face to face. One hundred and fifty years ago, 
this church was organized. It then first took the form of a visible in- 
stitution. It is true that the good seed had before been planted, and 
had begun to germinate and strike its tender roots into the genial soil 
around— and the upward shoots, too, had begun to drink in the genial 
rays of God's love. But not till then and here, did our fathers begin 
mutually and collectively to recognize that which was already a living 
fact in their own hearts. Not till then did they begin to dig around 
it, and to nourish it with their sympathies, and to strengthen it with 
their prayers. 

For a moment let us contrast the scenes which surrounded them, as 
they stood on this ground one hundred and fifty years ago, and took 
upon themselves their covenant vows and pledged themselves to each 
other and to God, to live in accordance with those vows— with the 
scenes that surround us here to-day. They were here in the midst of 
a wilderness, surrounded by wild beasts and savage men. These fields 
now so productive and beautiful, were then covered with their native 
forests. These roads now so indurate and perfect, were but "trails 
through the woods." Log huts, or at best, dwellings of the most 
humble class, occupied the sites of your beautiful and well-furnished 



73 

houses. No steam whistle broke the silence of their forest homes ; no 
cheerful church bell from some neighboring and friendly village, 
awoke the echoes of their silent valleys. The lightning had not yet 
been chained, and no electric telegraph flashed living thoughts from 
afar, to tell them of the world beyond their own quiet homes. But 
here they stood alone, — with God for their God ; with the blue firma- 
ment for their temple, and pledged themselves to build this church on 
that Rock, on which if a man build, his building shall stand. 

But this was not so strange a thing for our fathers to do ! It was 
just what they were in the habit of doing, indeed I may say, " it was 
just like them." Wherever they went, there they built a church, and 
close by, nestling under its friendly shadow, the school-house soon 
found a place. And these two formed the broad, deep and strong 
foundation, on which our institutions so firmly stand. 

And now, I hope these Reverend gentlemen, and my venerable 
friends here present, will not charge me with sacrilege, when I assure 
them that there is a very striking resemblance, between our puritan 
fathers, and the Abrahamic branch of the holy family. It will be re- 
membered that the sacred historian gives us only the salient points in 
Abraham's history, or only so much as was necessary to give a con- 
nected, complete, and correct history of the church. Now if we will 
occupy the same stand-point, and look at the same class of events, in 
the history of our pilgrim fathers, we shall see that there is a very 
close parallel between them. Abraham was a dweller in Mesopotamia, 
a country where his religion was aspersed, and where he was not per- 
mitted to worship after the dictates of his own conscience ; and the 
Lord, in his own good time, determined to take him out from among 
those heathen nations, and to establish through him, the worship of 
the true God. And He said unto Abraham, "Get thee out of thy 
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a 
land that I will shew thee." And Abraham gathered together his 
household and all their substance, and into the land of Canaan they 
came, unto the place of Sichem, and there built an altar unto the Lord. 
And from thence he passed on to "Bethel," and there, too, he built 
an altar unto the Lord, "and called upon the name of the Lord." 
And in the course of time he came to the plain of Mamre, and built 
there an altar to the Lord ; and wherever Abraham dwelt, his first 
public act was to build an altar to the Most High God, and renew his 
covenant vows with the Lord. And if you will pursue this history a 
10 



74 

little farther, you will see that it has a sequel full of instruction. May 
we not listen to-day to its teachings ? 

Many long years after Abraham had built the altar in Bethel, Jacob, 
fleeing through the wilderness, from before the wrathful face of his 
brother, came to this very place, and while he slept he dreamed, and 
beheld a ladder reaching from earth to heaven and the ansrels of 
God ascending and descending on it. This ladder was a beautiful 
figure of the mediatorial office of Christ. And the figure will appear 
still more beautiful if we will adopt a more correct reading of the pas- 
sage, which should be thus, — " And Jacob saw a way cast up, a high- 
way of the Lord — reaching from earth to heaven, and angels passing 
to and fro thereon." 

Now may not we, the sons and daughters of the pilgrim fathers, 
gathered from afar around this altar built by them, may not we, I 
say, perceive in our hearts and souls, this day, that glorious high-way 
of the Lord cast up for our salvation — even Christ Jesus ? 

But to return to the pilgrims. They were dwellers in a land where 
their religion was held in contempt, and where they were not permitted 
to worship God after the dictates of their own consciences. And God 
determined in his own good time to take them out from among their 
revilers and persecutors, and to place them in a land free and fresh 
from his own hand, untrod by the oppressor's foot, and unstained by 
the martyr's blood. And he said to their hearts, get thee out of 
this land, from thy father's house and from thy kindred, into a land 
that I will show thee. And they gathered together their wives, their 
little ones, and their scanty substance, and they came into the land. 
And now mark the history. Their first act was to build an altar to 
the Lord, and there on the bleak rocks, they renewed their covenant 
vows, and pledged themselves and theirs to the Lord's service ; and 
wherever they moved in the land and fixed their dwellings, there they 
built an altar to the Lord. And when, in the course of time, they 
came to this spot, here too, they built an altar to the Most High God ; 
and this day around that altar we stand. 

Our pilgrim fathers were rather a remarkable race of men, as com- 
pared with the men of the present day. They were higher-law men — 
stern and uncompromising in matters of principle — no political party 
had their consciences in keeping. They took the Lord for their God, 
and his law for their law. Their religion was an every day religion. 
It bore exportation and transportation ; whether tossed on the billows 



75 

of the Atlantic or wandering in the wilderness of America, it was the 
same. They were wise, far-seeing men, and lived not for themselves 
and their generation alone — as the beautiful villages of New England, 
with their broad streets and their wide spreading trees, bear ample 
testimony. Their provisions for a religious and common school educa- 
tion, are also evidences of their far seeing beneficence. Their laws 
were simple, just and equitable ; having God's word — not merely in 
theory but in fact — for their model. In short, whatever they did, 
was done for the establishing and building up of the nation which they 
had planted. 

But you will expect me to say something of your first ministers. 

Of Mr. Ruggles, of course, I can say nothing, as I know nothing of 
his history. And of my paternal ancestor I know but little. Yet 
that he was a puritan minister, and lived and died here, I do know. 
That he had preceding generations, we have no written testimony, 
but that he had succeeding generations, I stand here before you to-day 
a living witness. The time of his settlement, and his death ; the 
births, names and deaths of his children, are found in your town and 
church records. 

But of the puritan ministers generally, I can say truly, that they 
were a noble race of men. They were God's noblemen ; knighted by 
no earthly king, but by the King of kings. And perhaps I cannot 
better convey to you my estimation of their worth than to tell you 
what I wrote to a kinsman who said he had traced our ancestors to 
a puritan minister, and was pushing his enquiries into England, to 
learn where in that realm they came from. I begged him to desist, 
fearing that he might run us into some noble house. As for me, I was 
satisfied with being descended from a puritan minister. That was no- 
bility enough. 

The President next presented the name of Rev. Ben- 
jamin Ruggles ; first pastor of the first church in Suffield, 
and the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of whose 
death we were commemorating. Rev. Aratus Kent of 
Galena, Illinois, who was expected to respond, being under 
the necessity of leaving before this time, no response was 
made. The President next presented the name of Rev. 
Ebenezer Devotion ; second pastor of this church. 



76 

Col. John L. Devotion of Norwich, Connecticut, re- 
sponded as follows : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — It has seldom, and, I think I may 
safely say, never been my lot to be present on an occasion more truly 
interesting, than the one which has brought me among you to partici- 
pate in the inauguration of a monument to the memory of the Rev. 
Benjamin Ruggles. And here allow me to thank you for the invita- 
tion which your Committee extended to me, and since the receipt of 
which, I have experienced not a little of that wild delight which chil- 
dren feel in looking forward to the arrival of some cherished holiday. 

The name of your beautiful town is associated with my earliest rec- 
ollections ; and I have long desired that an opportunity might be 
presented which would enable me to view the resting place of a worthy 
progenitor. The erection of a monument to commemorate your first 
pastor is a noble enterprise ; one which I would like to see imitated by 
other towns, until all our cemeteries shall have such endearins: memo- 
rials of the departed. In yonder cemetery are deposited the ashes of 
a venerable ancestor. More than a century has passed since many of 
your ancestors stood around his grave, to pay the last tribute of affec- 
tion to their departed pastor. To you is entrusted the guardianship 
of those sacred remains ; let no ruthless hand desecrate his grave, or 
disturb his quiet repose. As we turn from the interesting exercises of 
the day, let us not forget to invoke the blessing of God on the work, 
and ask that his watchful care and guidance may be continued over us 
to our lives' end. 

The President next gave the name of Rev. Ebenezer 
Gay, D. D. ; third pastor of the church, and the name of 
Rev. Ebenezer GUy, Jr., his colleague, and afterward his 
successor to the pastoral office. 

Rev. Henry Robinson made the following response : 

No male descendant of Dr. Gay, bearing the family name, is living 
to respond to the call now made. There are among you, female de- 
scendants, retaining the name ; but as they defer to the gentlemen in 
the matter of public speaking, it seems to devolve on some of us, who 
do not bear the name, but have borne away those who did, to say 
something on the present occasion. 

My impressions of Dr. Gay are taken chiefly from his friend, Rev. 



77 

Dr. Lathrop of West Springfield, who says, in a sermon preached at 
his funeral, " Dr. Gay was an able and learned divine ; a scribe well 
instructed into the kingdom of God. The doctrines of grace were con- 
spicuous in his discourses. He preached them abundantly, and 
preached them in the apostolic manner. He was a wise and judicious 
counsellor. In conversation he was pleasant and instructive, and 
sometimes agreeably facetious and innocently humorous." Some anec- 
dotes, illustrative of this last trait in his character, have come down to 
us, one of which may here be given. 

It seems that candidates for settlement in the ministry were sub- 
jected to a rigid scrutiny from the people in Dr. Gay's time, as they 
have been ever since. None of them were exactly right. They were 
too long or too short, too thick or too thin. This last was the objec- 
tion against Dr. Gay. Though in latter years he was rather corpulent, 
in early life he was very slender. It began to be whispered among 
the people, that the candidate was too spare — his legs were too small 
— there was not enough of him to answer their purpose. Finding 
which way things were tending in the parish, and not being quite will- 
ing to " go by weight," he came out with a sermon from the text, " He 
taketlt not pleasure in the legs of a many Tt proved a sermon for 
the times. The disturbance was quieted. The candidate was harmo- 
niously settled, and enjoyed, in the main, a prosperous ministry. 

Rev. Ebenezer Gay, Jr., my honored father-in-law, was a fine 
scholar, having graduated at Yale in 1787, with the first honors of his 
class, and having been two years tutor in the college. He studied 
theology chiefly with Dr. Dana of New Haven, and his cotemporaries 
testify, that in his youth, he was a very popular preacher. From 1793 
to 1826 he had charge of the Congregational Church here ; the first 
three years as colleague with his father. The pastorates of father and 
son extended through a period of eighty-four years. 

Mr. Gay did much for the cause of education, preparing young men 
for college and for the various departments of business. He was a 
warm friend of his country, and earnestly sought its welfare. He was 
given to hospitality. His heart was full of sympathy for the dis- 
tressed and his hand was ever open for their relief. He was social in 
his feelings, and instructive and entertaining; in conversation. In the 
domestic relations he was kind and exemplary. The closing scene 
with him was calm and peaceful, and he left the world with a hope 
full of immortality. 



78 

William Gay, Esq., the younger son of Dr. Gay, after graduating 
at Yale, settled in this town as a lawyer. Here he passed a long and 
useful life, filling several important offices with honor to himself and 
benefit to the community.* The religion of Christ crowned his later 
years, and sustained him in the final conflict. His two sons were 
called away before him; one in childhood, the other, William C. Gay, 
Esq., in early manhood, to the great sorrow of relatives and friends. 

The two daughters of Dr. Gay were married ; one to Timothy 
Swan Esq., of Northfield, Mass., the other, successively to David 
Bronson, Esq., of Suffield, and Benjamin Swan, Esq., of Woodstock, 
Vt.f Their descendants are somewhat numerous and occupy impor- 
tant places in society. 

A word in reference to the past and present of Suffield, and I have 
done. I have spoken of the efforts of Rev. Ebenezer Gay, Jr., in the 
cause of education, and in teaching a select school for the benefit of 
the youth of his time. Now the Connecticut Literary Institute 
adorns your beautiful town, furnishing in its spacious buildings, its 
able corps of teachers and its various appliances, distinguished facili- 
ties for the education of youth ; and which during the quarter of a 
century of its existence, has trained great numbers for a collegiate 
course, and for professional and business life. 

We have been told in the historical discourse, that Rev. John 
Younglove, who first preached the gospel in this town, had his habita- 
tion on or near the place where we are met. It is enough to invest 
the spot with a character of sacredness, that a faithful minister of 
Christ here lived, and labored, and committed his departing spirit into 
the hands of his Savior. But here is now a house of God, where as- 
sembles from Sabbath to Sabbath, one of the largest churches in the 
state, consisting of more than six hundred members, and where have 
been witnessed remarkable displays of divine power and grace in the 
conversion of souls. 

In these and other evidences of progress in matters of the highest 
moment, and of the favor of God toward this town, I sincerely rejoice. 
I can never cease to feel a deep interest in Suffield. The scenes 
through which I passed, during the six years of my pastorate in the 
Congregational Church are indelibly stamped on my heart. The re- 

* He was postmaster in Suffield 36 years. 

t Mr. Benjamin Swan was Treasurer of Vermont 32 years, and Clerk of the Courts 
42 years. 



79 

unions and reminiscences of this day have only rendered those scenes 
more fresh and vivid, the recollection of which will never fade from my 
memory. 

The President gave several sentiments, which, follow, 
with the responses given : 

SENTIMENT. 
" While we commemorate the virtues, and honor the memory of the 
distinguished dead, we cherish with unabated affection their living suc- 
cessors in the pastoral office of this church, all of whom have done us 
the honor to be present on this occasion." 

Response of Rev. Joel Mann. 

The present commemorative occasion is both a pleasing and a sad- 
dening one. Such in fact is the nature of almost all retrospections of 
the past, both in regard to ourselves and others. It is pleasing to 
stand among those for whose spiritual welfare I performed a brief min- 
istry, some of whom continue to the present. It is delightful to look 
upon their faces, and exchange greetings with them after the lapse of 
nearly thirty years. But it is saddening to call to mind those with 
whom we have taken sweet counsel, who have finished their labors 
and passed away from the earth. Their removal from the world gives 
a monitory lesson to us and impresses our minds with the brevity of 
life, and the transitoriness of all earthly things. 

It was my privilege to be associated in the pastorate here with a 
venerable servant of God who had -long been a watchman on this por- 
tion of Zion, the second Mr. Gay ; a man of genial spirit, given to 
hospitality, a man of faith and prayer. His love to the people of his 
charge led him to make large sacrifices for their good ; and I doubt 
not that this people cherish his memory with affection, and that his 
children are loved for the father's sake as well as for their own. The 
seed of the righteous is blessed. 

Though my ministry was short, extending to about three years, and 
though it was in various respects defective, it was attended with saving 
results to some. A precious visitation of the Holy Spirit at one time, 
wrought, as it was believed, the conversion of about thirty, some of 
whom still live to pray and labor for the holy cause, which is dear to 
the hearts of those who love Christ. 

That was a kind of transition period from the staid, uniform, quiet 



80 

mode of operation both by ministers and churches, to the adoption of 
what were called new measures, and with these the putting forth of 
greater efforts, — the multiplication of religious meetings, and extra 
means for the conversion of men. Protracted services like those of 
the Sabbath were soon after introduced, continuing for several succes- 
sive days and even weeks. Christians awoke to a greater sense of re- 
sponsibility to God and men, and to greater prayerfulness and zeal. 
They consecrated themselves anew to the service of Christ — shook off 
their formality, and commenced a course of action more accordant with 
their vows. Many were alarmed by these new measures, and augured 
disastrous effects to the cause of religion, and the purity of the churches. 
Many were unwilling to admit that sinners could be soundly converted 
so suddenly ; and that such large numbers could be safely added, to 
the churches by such a summary process. They thought that the old 
way of coming along into religion by degrees, was a safer way. Well, 
it has been shown, that the Lord knows how to do his own work, and 
it is not best for us to be over anxious to steady the ark, but commit 
the keeping of it to his care. It should be observed, however, that 
the conservatism of those to whom I have alluded, was caused by their 
love to the church, and their desire for its welfare. The law of 
progress was not so fully comprehended by them perhaps as by those 
who have come after them. 

We seem to have come to the commencement of another era, 
which is unfolding more clearly the duties of ministers and churches in 
regard to the kingdom of Christ. The dispensations of divine grace 
are teaching us new lessons ; and are showing that every member of 
the household of faith has much to do for its prosperity at home an 
abroad. 

Here the speaker alluded to the recent revivals, and the 
daily prayer meetings, which had been a chief instrumen- 
tality in beginning them and carrying them on. He al- 
luded also to his ancestry, and remarked that he was de- 
scended from Richard Mann, who came in the May Flow- 
er, and was one of those who landed on Plymouth Rock. 
Having expressed his reverence for the good and great 
who have gone to their eternal reward, he exhorted all to 
be followers of those who through faith and patience in- 
herit the promises. 



81 

Response of Rev. A. C. Washburn. 

Mr. President, it is impossible for me fully to express my feelings 
on this present occasion. Nor need I make the attempt. For in con- 
nection with this sumptuous feast there has been such an overflowing 
of rich thought, and of varied and appropriate sentiment that surely this 
audience must be well nigh surfeited, and perhaps would long since 
have cried " enough " had not the benevolent Creator bestowed upon 
them in large measure, physical and mental power. Yet I ask their 
indulgence while I briefly reciprocate the kind and affectionate senti- 
ments you have uttered, as their organ, in relation to former pastors 
of this church. 

I thank you for the opportunity of expressing the pleasure I feel in 
recalling scenes of thrilling interest through which I have here passed. 
Here I found, and still find, friends whose friendship it is no sin for a 
mortal creature to covet. Alas ! many, how many, we meet here 
no more. It was my happiness to labor here during four seasons of 
special revival, and during the fourteen years of my pastorate more than 
two hundred were added to the church. It was also my privilege to 
be instrumental in promoting the happiness of many in matters some- 
what less spiritual, but not less talked of in most circles. During my 
ministry here, I joined in marriage one hundred and seventy couple, 
and I know not that in any instance the knot has slipped, or that any 
one of that happy number ever desired to break the bond. Not a few 
I see here to-day, who are competent witnesses in this matter. 

In recalling the friendships of by-gone days, I love to dwell on 
that brotherly union and christian affection ever manifested towards me 
here, by ministers of other denominations. And happy am I to learn, 
that this brotherly feeling still exists, so that when the rain was coming 
down this morning in torrents, and your arrangements for meeting in a 
great tent were likely to be frustrated, the pastor of the Baptist 
Church, with the cordial approbation of his people, promptly offered 
the use of this spacious room, their vestry, where we are comfortably 
sheltered from the pelting storm. God grant that this christian union 
may never be sundered ! 

I rejoice to find the people of my former charge so happily united 
in my successor. And in this connection permit me, sir, to recall a 
thought of great practical value, brought out to-day in the historical 

11 



82 

address, viz., The dismission of ministers does not always settle dif- 
ficulties in churches. There is a better way. 

Some gentlemen have alluded in very appropriate terms to their 
honorable ancestry. Ancestors are all honorable men, and I presume 
mine were equal to the best of them, though my acquaintance with 
them is somewhat limited. I do not know that any of them ever fell 
from a platform and broke their neck, when addressing a multitude. 
Perhaps some of them have deserved that fate, though I have never 
known one, bearing my name, ever sent to prison. And I do know 
that many of that name, which is becoming quite common in our 
country, have made good ministers, lawyers, doctors, judges, congress- 
men, and governors ; and if there are not some of the same sort left, 
I presume there will be many in due time. But, sir, I will stop lest 
you mistake my design, and think I am trying to make a speech. 

Permit me to renew my thanks for the affectionate reception I have 
met here to-day, and which I always meet among this beloved people. 
And, sir, if you and they enjoy the Divine Benediction, and prosper 
according to the sincere desire of my heart, this will evermore be indeed 
a happy people. 

Response of Rev. J. R. Miller. 

Mr. President, the sentiment has effected, what I suppose was de- 
signed, to bring out the former surviving pastors who had not spoken 
in the proceedings of this day. A few words from the present pastor, 
for himself and people, seem in place. We rejoice to meet here to-day 
those who have occupied our places before us, to greet them, and hear 
their voices. We are made glad by the presence of those who have 
left this their native home to seek their fortunes and serve their God 
elsewhere. We cannot yield to any in the interest taken in this day's 
transactions. For we assure them that while others come excited by 
old scenes and recollections and associations, we feel animated by the 
present realities ; while the past was theirs, the present is ours ; its 
joys, its anxieties, and its responsibilities. For this day we have 
planned, and labored, and provided, and prayed, and felt solicitude. 
We have done what we could. And now our hearts are full. Nor 
can we yield to any in our attachment to Suffield. Its beauties are to 
us, not the beauties of a place we have left for other attractions, but 
those of a place to which we have still fondly clung as dear above all, 



83 

or for which we have left other scenes that we might adopt it as our 
own. We call it our home. We look out upon its broad and pleasant, 
fields, and rejoice in them as the heritage in which our lot is cast, ami 
feel that our lines are fallen in pleasant places. Its history is dear, 
and we will seek to perpetuate it. Its interests are dear, and we will 
strive to preserve them. And now as we stand in the light which this 
day casts upon it, and consider the worthies that have here lived and la- 
bored before us, a new sense of responsibility is felt. Surely, we have 
something to do, and strive for, in emulation of their virtues. 

We will not speak of our past works, except, for the information of 
others, to say, that the results, through the blessing of God, will not 
compare unfavorably with any who have preceded us. We stand 
to-day united and strong. And while we think we stand we would 
mind the admonition to take heed lest we fall. Our hope and trust is 
in God. He is able to keep us from falling. But left of him, our pride, 
or self-will, or folly would soon cast us down. The Lord has blessed 
us greatly, and is blessing us still ; and our earnest prayer is that we 
may so labor and be faithful unto the end, that men may be ever able 
to adopt concerning us the language of the last sentiment. 

SENTIMENT. 
" The Fathers in the Christian Ministry, the pioneers in planting 
churches, schools, academies, and colleges ; where are they 't They 
have their living representatives here to-day." 

Response of Rev. Daniel "Waldo, in his ninety-seventh 
year. 

To give all the reminiscences of ninety years would fill a folio. A 
few will suffice. The churches were often taught within my memory 
by those who knew less than their hearers ; and schools were taught 
by those who made two syllables of ton-gue. Dilworth's grammar and 
spelling-book were the only ones in use. The ynmortal Noah Web- 
ster soon dispelled the darkness that brooded over the land. At the 
close of the Revolution many sought a liberal education ; and science 
soon began to be sown broadcast over our land. Common schools be- 
gan to have competent teachers, for all business and social intercourse. 
Academies were established in all our villages of note. Colleges have 
become almost as numerous as common schools a hundred and fifty 



84 

years ago. As science increased, the Bible was more highly esteemed, 
not only for its pure morality, but as the best book to make the best 
reader. Could Dr. Mathews' Bible and Civil Government, and his 
Connection of Science and Religion be universally read by all persons 
of intelligence, this world of bloody wickedness would soon be paradise 
regained. 

SENTIMENT. 
" The city of Hartford — distinguished for its fine churches, and elo- 
quent preachers, its humane institutions, its antiquaries, and its ora- 
tors ; has honored us by the presence of some of its distinguished rep- 
resentatives on this occasion." 

Mr. Joseph R. Hawley responded. 

SENTIMENT. 
" The Great West — the adopted home of many of the sons and 
daughters of Suffield, is honorably represented here to-day, by our 
own son — the orator of the day. ' ' 

Not responded to. , 

SENTIMENT. 

" The parson and the poet — an honored son of West Suffield — the 
author of the original hymn for the occasion." 

Not responded to. 

SENTIMENT. 
" The Connecticut Literary Institute, as an ornament to the town, 
and a hand-maid to the christian church — may it fully answer the de- 
sire of its friends — that our sons may be as plants grown in their 
youth, and that our daughters may be polished after the similitude of 
a palace." 

Dr. Ives, pastor of the (Second Baptist Church said, that 
since the President of the day had alluded to the offer 
made of the vestry, in which to have the collation, on ac- 
count of the storm, he wished to say, it was voluntarily 
and cordially offered. As it respected the institution, Mr. 
Pratt, the Principal, was present and could speak for that. 
It was an object dear to his heart. He felt that its influ- 
ence had been good, and wished its future advancement. 



85 

It was in a flourishing condition — had an able and efficient 
board of instructors — and efforts were being: made to re- 
lieve it of an embarrassing debt, which he felt would be 
successful. 

He said, that this was a day in which he had taken great 
interest ; he might say, that it was one of the happiest of 
his life. He felt proud of the historian of the day. He 
could but admire the manner in which he handled those 
exceedingly delicate matters pertaining to the separation 
of the church. In speaking of those things, (as fidelity 
required him to speak of them,) it was truly gratifying to 
see with what candor and impartiality they were treated. 
He felt that a noble example was given for the imitation 
of other historians, who had not always exhibited the like 
unbiased and unprejudiced feelings toward those of an- 
other name. 

Mr. Pratt, Principal of the institution, said, that he had 
not expected to be called upon for a speech. As it re- 
spected the sentiment, he would express his thanks ; and 
as the Doctor had spoken a few words relative to the insti- 
tution, perhaps that would do for the response. He would 
say however, that he felt the influence of the institution 
upon the town to be good. He thought its influence in 
time past had been good. It formed a band of union. 
The young people of both societies were educated .there ; 
and so a common interest was felt in its welfare and pros- 
perity. And those feeling an interest in the same object, 
are likely to have kinder feelings towards each other. He 
had been much interested in the services of the day, and 
felt that they would have a beneficial influence. 

Rev. Daniel Hemenway, spoke in confirmation of what 
the two preceding speakers had said. He regarded the 
influence of the institution as salutary. He desired to see it 
prosper even beyond its present prosperity. He regretted 
that it was burdened with so great a debt. He felt that 
there were those who were abundantly able to relieve it, 



86 

and he hoped and trusted that the earnest effort would be 
made, and prove successful. 

SENTIMENT. 
" The ladies of Suffield — though not represented on this occasion by 
speakers, have represented themselves by works which cost more and 
taste sweeter than words." 

An opportunity being given for voluntary addresses, 
Judge Huntington, of Washington, said : 

When I received the invitation of the Committee to attend here 
to-day, I felt that official duties at "Washington would render my com- 
pliance with that invitation impossible. But so strong was my desire 
to be present upon this occasion, that official duties, however pressing, 
have been postponed, and I have traveled some four hundred miles 
or more, for the sole object of uniting with some of the associates of 
my boyhood, and the present inhabitants of my native town in this 
interesting commemoration. 

It is a praise-worthy object which has brought us together ; and al- 
low me here in the outset to remark, that whatever diversity of religious 
creeds may prevail among us at the present day, we stand here to a 
certain extent as the representatives of our ancestors in their religious 
character. And as they were all congregationalists, we therefore, for 
the occasion, should ourselves, be congregationalists. In commemorat- 
ing the erection of a monument to the memory of their first pastor, 
upon this one hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of his death, we do as 
they would have done, could they have carried out their wishes at the 
time ; and thus all are acting for them, and by respecting their senti- 
ments, we honor their memories and thus bring ourselves within the 
benefit of the " first commandment with promise." 

It is an occasion too, on which we can, with propriety, indulge in 
that peculiar pleasure which arises from a revival of our earliest recol- 
lections. The scenes — the hopes and the joys — the little trials and 
disappointments — all that make up the history of our childhood are en- 
graven deeply on our hearts — they are written indelibly there. The 
events of our rnaturer or declining years often pass off with the day of 
their occurrence; the incidents of yesterday are forgotten to-day; and 
those of to-day will pass into oblivion to-morrow. Mingled as they are 
with the strife, the emulation and the rivalry of business — the tur- 



87 

moil and the contention of life — we are willing to forget them. Not so 
with our early life. Its history is interwoven with our purest, our 
warmest, our holiest affections — with the love for our parents, for our 
brothers and sisters — with the attachment to our playmates, and with 
all these hallowed memories which cluster around the unbroken family 
circle ; and therefore it is, that we love to revisit the scenes and to re- 
call the events of that history. 

With my school-mate, to whose sermon we have listened to-day, 
with so much interest and satisfaction, my memory runs back some 
fifty years or more ; more than forty-five years ago I parted with him 
— a ruddy, handsome, bright-eyed youth — and have not seen him since, 
until I entered the church this morning and saw the venerable preach- 
er in your pulpit. The incidents, and the old men of his childhood, 
alluded to by him, are quite distinct in my memory. I well recollect, 
too, the " Old Porch House," — the first parsonage — on the site of 
which, this day's exercises were commenced. I believe I am the only 
living person born in that house, — the only tie, therefore, between it and 
the living successors of those who erected it. It had of course, ceased to 
be the parsonage when my parents occupied it at the commencement of 
their married life. It stood a rod or two back from the highway — two 
stories high — the upper projecting perhaps a foot or so, over the lower 
— with a large porch ifl front, also two stories high, and what was 
called a '■ lean-to " in the rear. I remember well an old pear tree — 
the old fashioned bell-pear — standing a few rods back from the house, 
within what was probably once the garden of the parsonage. And 
as it was quite an old tree in appearance when I was a child, it was 
doubtless originally planted there by the hand of one of the good men 
who occupied the house as a parsonage. A pear from that tree was a 
choice acquisition. The tree is gone ; but the old elms, probably 
planted by the same hand, still stand in front ; and long may they re- 
main to mark the site of the dwelling place of holy men of old. 

From this house, my memory naturally turns to the old " Meeting 
House," on the hill; the site of which is occupied by the house in 
which a portion of our exercises have this day taken place. The exte- 
rior appearance and the internal arrangement were similar to what 
might, fifty years ago, have been seen in almost every town in New 
England. The posts were cased inside, so that their size was obvious 
to the eye. Running up the tower-stairs to the belfry, as we boys 
were in the habit of doing very often, we could see the massive frame- 



88 

work of the roof. Judging from what I recollect of its appearance, it 
might now have been standing, hut for that unfortunate trait of our 
character — all aversion to everything old. The belfry was surmount- 
ed by a handsome spire of, I think, very fortunate proportions, indi- 
cating that they who designed it, retained the taste and impressions 
derived from similar objects in our father-land. 

The square, un painted, high pews — with their uncushioned seats and 
bare floors — the pulpit large enough to accommodate an ordinary con- 
vocation of the clergy — the immense sounding board, with its elabo- 
rate paneled and carved work — which always excited my boyish fears 
for the personal safety of Mr. Gay — for since I could discover no ade- 
quate means for its suspension, it was in my opinion inevitably des- 
tined to fall — the wide galleries on three sides, with the long seats back 
of them, and the high pews against the wall, are all most clearly inter- 
woven with my earliest recollections of public worship. 

These galleries served as a sort of play-ground for the boys, and I 
remember well an honest, simple man, who lived, I think, with Mr. Jo- 
seph Pease, and who seemed to imagine that he was earning a certain 
passport to heaven by rapping the boys on the head to keep them still, 
but greatly increasing the disturbance. 

No deep toned organ then aided the service. The rational taste in 
church music had not then overcome the aversion of our puritan an- 
cestors to the becoming usages of the English Church, and I doubt if 
a church organ could have been found in a single congregational house 
of worship in this State, during the first quarter of the present century. 

The singers, or choir, were then arranged in four parts, occupying 
the entire front of the gallery on three sides, and my uncle, Elihu 
Kent — the father of my cousin Horace Kent, from Virginia, whom I 
have the happiness of meeting here to-day — was the leader. In the 
language of the day, he " set the psalm ;" and that " pitch pipe," with 
which he gave what I believe is termed the " key note," was to me a 
most mysterious instrument. 

There were no means for warming the building. Foot stoves were 
common — carried by the boys for the comfort of their grandmothers ; 
and the transfer of these from one pew to another, over the high di- 
visions, was considered a mark of singular benevolence on the part of 
the more aristocratic elderly ladies towards their less favored neigh- 
bors. Whether the greater warmth of the piety of our ancestors sup- 
plied the heat of stoves and furnaces of modern days, is perhaps a 



89 

question to be solved. Of one thing, however, I am certain, that not- 
withstanding the absence of cushions and carpets and anthracite fur- 
naces, the attendance in those days at the places of public worship 
was little affected by the variations of the thermometer, and was more 
general and uniform than at the present day. The change in the arrange- 
ment of the building, the good taste and comforts of its furniture as seen 
in the present structure, the improvement of the music by the introduc- 
tion of the choir and organ, point significantly to a wholesome change in 
public sentiment, not only as to the mode of conducting public worship, 
but as to the proper and appropriate uses of church buildings. 

The English Church, followed by the Episcopal Church in this 
country, separated by a solemn form of consecration, their churches 
" from all unhallowed, worldly or common use ;" and therefore their 
churches were held exclusively for the worship of Almighty God. Our- 
puritan ancestors thinking they saw in this proper and becoming prac- 
tice, a tendency to superstition and a blind reverence for mere objects 
of sense, went too far the other way, and degraded the house of God 
to the most common, not to say profane, uses. The controlling influ- 
ence of this feeling was most manifest, within my recollection. The 
town and freemen's meetings, as they were termed, were always held 
in the "Meeting House." Theatrical exhibitions were sometimes got 
up in it ; and I well remember, upon one of these occasions, the " star " 
of the performance was a Miss Sheldon — I think a daughter of Col. 
Thomas Sheldon of the West Society. If it happened to rain on 
"training day,'' the company was marched into the " Meeting House," 
and the manual exercise was gone through with, there. 

As I have remarked, more rational and consistent views now pre- 
vail ; and I presume no one in this beautiful village associates other 
duties with the church than the public worship of his Maker. 

Mr. Gay was the first and the last congregational minister to whom 
I ever listened. My parents, during my childhood, became connected 
with the Baptist communion ; but their place of worship was so far dis- 
tant that their children lingered at the old house to a great extent, un- 
til the erection of the Baptist meeting house, just south of where Mr. 
Thomas Archer now resides. This took place a year or two before my 
parents removed from the town. Since that time, my brothers and; 
myself have strayed, as you may think, into the Episcopal Church. 
But whether strayed or not — I found peace, and quiet, and comfort 
there, and I trust a hope sure and steadfast, of final rest in heaven, 
12 



90 

through the merits of our blessed Redeemer. From the old " Meeting 
House " my memory naturally turns to the school house. In my day 
it stood nearly in front of the " Meeting House," on " the green," as 
it was called — in the middle of your beautiful broad street. My earliest 
recollections of it are when it was new. The old school house — its 
predecessor — I know by tradition, stood down the hill, at the opening 
of the road leading to West Suffield. I do not remember the building, 
but I do remember the traces of its foundation and the fragments of 
bricks left there after its demolition. My recollections of first attending 
school are in the new school house, standing where I have described it. 
The house was new and freshly painted white ; and it left upon my 
childish imagination an impression of magnificence and grandeur of 
architecture far surpassing anything I have since seen. I have been 
abroad — have viewed with admiration Westminister Abbey and the new 
Parliament House opposite — many of the grand old cathedrals — many 
of the royal and noble castles and palaces of England and of the continent. 
But none of them made, at the time, an impression surpassing that 
which I now recall as left upon my boyish fancy by the new school- 
house. Improved taste, or better judgment, has removed the building 
from the highway to adjoining land, formerly a part of the farm of 
Col. Luther Loomis ; and there it now stands — a plain and simple 
structure of no great dimensions — a monument, convincing me of the 
marvelous changes wrought in our ideas by the flight of fifty years. 
Not only the school-house, but the hills, down which I used to slide on 
my sled — the brook on which I skated in the winter, and in which I 
bathed almost daily in the summer — have all dwindled into most un- 
accountably contracted dimensions. 

The various experiences of my early school days, and the names and 
persons of my school mates are vivid in my memory. The Grangers — 
the Peases — the Kents — the Loomises — the Kings — the Hathaways — 
the Austins — the Remingtons — the Shcldons — the Phelpses, the 
Hitchcocks, and others that I might name — now as I stand on the 
ground where I knew them so long ago. come up in my memory with 
all their personal peculiarities. The simple beauty of the girls, and the 
athletic feats, the skill at ball, the manliness, and in some instances 
the clownishness, of the boys, are distinctly recalled. 

Of the experiences of my school days, I could recount many, which 
might show that I was to say the least, unfortunate. Among the 
teachers, I remember a master Sykes — Lott Sykes was his name. 



91 

Whether our historian of to-day is of his family, I know not. I recollect 
he combed his hair in precisely the same, somewhat peculiar manner. 
Goldsmith's description of his country school master, was in one re- 
spect applicable to him : — 

" A man severe he was, and stern to view, 
I knew him well, and every truant knew." 

He was a good teacher, and maintained excellent discipline in a 
school of fifty or sixty unruly boys — to say nothing of the girls. His 
hand-writing was like copper-plate. He feruled me once, for tripping 
down in school an awkward school-mate, while he was going to the fire 
to warm his feet. I doubtless deserved the punishment, though the of- 
fence arose from no " malice aforethought." 

From the district school, I ascended to a classical school, in the up- 
per west room, first taught, I think, by Mr. Gaylord Welles, and after- 
wards by Mr. Roswell Bailey, a very unfit man, for I have not for- 
gotten the aid he afforded me in deceiving the Committee at a public ex- 
amination. From the school-house, I was transferred to Mr. Gay's school 
in his house — in the chamber over the kitchen ; and in the small south 
chamber adjoining was kept the town library. Mr. Gay was not only a 
good man, but a good teacher. I remember well having committed 
Murray's Grammar to memory most thoroughly, without the slightest 
comprehension of the principles of English Grammar, until I came un- 
der his tuition, when his clear and simple illustrations in one or two 
lessons revealed the whole subject to my mind. 

Among my school-fellows, there were William C. Gay and An- 
thony Hathaway. They were both good scholars. The fluency with 
which they translated Virgil, excited on my part mingled feelings of 
admiration and boyish envy. The first was a year before me in college. 
He sustained a good reputation for scholarship there, and gave fair 
promise of success in his profession afterwards, but was carried to com- 
paratively an early grave by, I believe, some chronic affection of the 
brain. The second was in the same class — but alas ! never attained to 
graduation. Not many years since he was called to his final rest ; but. 
although his life was thus prolonged, his precocious faculties, to the sore 
disappointment of the justly high expectations of his friends, sank into a 
premature decay. The last recollection I have of him, is that of hear- 
ing him recite in the college chapel a ludicrous parody of Cato's solil- 
oquy on the immortality of the soul. Strange coincidence ! that his 



92 

after life should have seemed to bo a practical contradiction of that 
same soliloquy ! But to those who knew him, as I did, in his bright 
boyhood, it will be gratifying to learn that on the eve of his departure 
for a better and brighter world, the cloud which had so long darkened 
his intellect passed off, and he seemed, from his quotations from Latin 
authors, to be entering the immortal world from a point in his early 
life where his mind was active and occupied in the study of the classics. 
Mr. Gay was cheerful and kindly in his intercourse with his school- 
boys, and yet he always commanded their love and respect. His sal- 
ary as a clergyman was small, and he was obliged to supply its defic- 
iency by school teaching and active labor on his farm. He was hos- 
pitable in his house, and, in the discharge of his pastoral duties, kind 
and charitable, though unostentatious. My recollection of many inci- 
dents justifies me in saying that the few poor of that day had cause to 
be thankful to him, and, could they speak now, would bless his memory. 

To the leading men of Suffield and . their political affinities, fifty 
years ago, allusion has already been made. Thaddeus Leavitt, Asahel 
Hathaway, William Gay, Esquires, Captain John Kent, the father 
of the preacher to-day, and Deacon Taylor, were among the known and 
decided Federalists, as they were called. Mr. Granger, Postmaster 
General, Mr. Seth Pease, Assistant Postmaster General, and afterwards 
Surveyor General of the United States, Col. Luther Looinis, Capt. Tim- 
othy Phelps and my father, were among the leading men of the Demo- 
cratic party. 

Esquire Leavitt and Esquire Hathaway, as they were generally des- 
ignated, were the principal Justices of the Peace of the town. My 
father's professional practice as a lawyer led him to send me to them 
frequently on business errands. I remember well the awe and fear 
with which I used to enter their presence. Esquire Leavitt was tall in 
his person, always neat in his apparel, moved with a dignified aristo- 
cratic air, and, to my young eyes, venerable in his appearance, with 
an execepingly mild and benevolent expression of countenance. Es- 
quire Hathaway was in his personal appearance rather the reverse of 
Esquire Leavitt. The sobriquet of "Bishop" was often attached to 
his name. The origin of this high ecclesiastical title, as given to him, 
I have never learned. He was an educated man — of strong good 
sense, united with an occasional flash of homely, but pungent wit. 
He was one of the deacons of the church. 

Capt. John Kent was remarkable for order and system in all his af- 



93 

fairs ; of rather strong political prejudices, but most consistent and ex- 
emplary in life. His fences were always good — his farm well cultivated, 
Ills boys well trained and dressed, which contrasted rather strongly 
with my father's premises and boys, especially as they were on the 
opposite sides of the same road. I am justified, perhaps, in adding as 
an apology, that my father's professional duties called him much from 
home, so that the charge of all these matters devolved upon my 
mother. 

Of Postmaster General Granger it is unnecessary to say much, as 
he was a man of national reputation. I have always understood that 
he was a leader of the Hartford County bar. As a member of the 
State Legislature, the people of Connecticut owe him a vast debt of 
gratitude ; since by his efforts, more than by those of any other individ- 
ual, were the avails of the Western Reserve directed to the support of 
common schools ; and from which arose our munificent school Fund, 
affording to every child of our state, the means of obtaining a respecta- 
ble education. In his person Mr. Granger Avas one of the handsomest 
men I ever saw. His son Francis Granger, who was also Postmaster 
General under President Harrison, is, according to my recollection, 
almost Sbjac simile of his father. 

Col. Loomis was an active, energetic and most industrious man. 
Though somewhat corpulent, he moved with a quiet and business step. 
He often represented the town in the State Legislature, and was gen- 
erally a successful man in the conduct of his affairs. He, with Esquire 
Leavitt, Capt. Kent, and at a somewhat later day, Mr. Thomas Arch- 
er, were the merchants of the town. 

Captain Timothy Phelps was a reading man — fond of social inter- 
course, ready in conversation, as his mind was well stored with histori- 
cal information. Mr. Pease the assistant Postmaster General was a 
rare man in his day. He was a man of science. As a surveyor, as- 
tronomer, and geographer, he was greatly in advance of the age in 
which he lived. 

My father, Hezekiah Huntington, was a soldier in the revolution, 
and was at one time, for several months, confined in the infamous Jer- 
sey prison ship. He acquired his professional education after the close 
of the war, and settled in this town. In 1813 he removed to Hartford. 
He was appointed District Attorney by Mr. Jefferson, and held the 
office more than twenty-five years. He was also State Attorney for 
Hartford County many years. 



94 

William Gay, Esquire, I pass over as he has been appropriately 
mentioned by another who knew him well. 

I hope to be pardoned for alluding in this connection to one of an 
earlier generation than these of whom I have spoken, and who sur- 
vived within my recollection. I refer to my maternal grandfather, 
Elihu Kent — Major Kent as he was commonly called. He was born, 
I believe, and lived and died in a house that stood where Mr. Heze- 
kiah Spencer's house now stands. My recollections of the venerable 
man undoubtedly derive their coloring in some measure, from that affec- 
tionate reverence which a grandson necessarily feels for a kind and in- 
dulgent grand-parent. But my reason can draw conclusions from facts 
which I do remember as such, however much they may be mingled 
with the fiction of the peculiar relative to which I have alluded. From 
these I can say with confidence that he was a man of great frankness 
of character, of independence and firmness in 'his opinions, consistent 
and exemplary in his life. With an iron constitution he possessed an 
untiring energy. Patriotism was a leading and controlling trait of his 
character. He was an officer in what was called the French war, 
which resulted in the conquest from the French by the English and 
the Colonies, of the country northwest of the Ohio and of the Canadas, 
and was finally terminated by the treaty of Paris in 1763. 

At the breaking out of the revolution, with his characteristic energy 
and promptitude he raised a company of one hundred and twenty men, 
on what was called the " Lexington alarm," and as their commander, 
marched with them to the " relief of Boston." At the expiration of the 
term for which the company engaged, he returned home, and during 
the continuance of the war, sent his three of four sons, with I believe, 
two negro slaves to many surrounding campaigns — he himself remain- 
ing at home to conduct the operations of his farm. His surplus of 
grain — of pork and beef, I have often heard my mother say, was 
carried to the army for which he freely received in payment, continen- 
tal money, for the sake of sustaining the credit of the only currency 
within the command of the government. I remember well seeing in 
the garret of his house, large quantities of this worthless paper money. 
He always rode on horse-back, and at a galloping or cantering gait. 
In the latter years of his life he was so feeble as to require assistance 
to mount his horse, and yet he would persist in that mode of riding, 
and when mounted he would move with the same gait. He died, I 
think, in 1814, in the eighty-third year of his age. 



95 

I have reserved Deacon Taylor's name for the last, as he naturally 
leads me to another suhject upon which I wish to say a few words he- 
fore closing these remarks. Deacon Taylor was the hlacksmith of the 
village, and none the less respected on that account. His dwelling 
house stood where the church, in which we are now assembled, stands. 
His shop, a long, low, unpainted building, stood a few rods south. In 
his life and conversation he was very exemplary. He was a hard work- 
ing man, employing many journeymen and apprentices in his shop. 
A village blacksmith's shop, in those days, was a very different affair 
from what it is at present. Now the business of it is almost wholly 
confined to shoeing our horses and oxen. Then, as in Deacon Taylor's 
— not only our horses and oxen were shod, but all our agricultural im- 
plements were manufactured — our scythes — our ploughshares — hoes 
— pitchforks — spades — hammers — axes — many of our household uten- 
sils — our gridirons — toasting-irons — andirons and fire shovels and 
tongs. And so it was with almost every other article of house- 
hold furniture, and wearing apparel — they were of domestic man- 
ufacture. Mr. Fitch Parsons was the cabinet maker. A Mr. 
Hathaway, I think, who lived in what was called Christian Street, was 
the hatter ; Messrs. Jones and Gabriel and Mr. Brown the shoemakers ; 
Mr. Bestor the tailor ; all of whom, I remember well, were very much 
hurried just before thanksgiving, that being the time when the boys as- 
sumed their new winter suits : and what labor, and care, and vexation 
attended the preparation of these suits. I can remember when the 
wool was carded by hand. Afterwards the great improvement of carding 
machines was introduced. The manufacture began early in the summer; 
the wool was carded as I have intimated, then spun upon what was 
called a large wheel, by the daughters of the family, or by a person 
hired for that special purpose, carried to the weaver's, and thence to 
the clothier's, and then brought home, a good, warm, substantial, but- 
ternut brown cloth usually, ready for the tailoress, who in many cases 
came to the house to cut and make it into suits. So with the sum- 
mer clothes ; the flax was spun in the winter, whitened on the early 
spring grass, a part colored blue, and then woven into blue stripes or 
checks ; and such fabrics made garments which lasted quite as long as 
the wearers desired. 

I mention these things as illustrating the progress made in our 
domestic civilization within the past fifty years. The labors of the fe- 
males of a family, in a vast majority of instances, at the period I speak 



96 

of, left little time or opportunity to obtain an education to qualify them 
for the important station they necessarily fill in society. 

The improvement in the particulars to which I have referred, as well 
as in many other respects, leave to our wives and daughters, time to fit 
themselves for their appropriate spheres, to cultivate and enlarge their 
minds, to acquire the knowledge which enables them to control and in- 
fluence public opinion, to purify and elevate public sentiment, to be- 
come the educators of our younger children, to cheer with their smiles 
and to lighten with their love, the increased labors of man. 

I have thus hastily sketched from my memory, some of the things, the 
incidents, and the men of Sufneld, of fifty years ago. I must conclude 
with expressing the earnest hope that my native town, so beautiful in 
its natural scenery, so rich in men, who have here concentrated so 
much of the means of human happiness, or gone forth to make their 
mark in other towns and states, will upon some other and early fitting- 
occasion find a historian, who will fill up and give the true coloring to 
the picture, of which I have drawn but a very imperfect outline. 

Remarks by Henry A. Sykes. 

Mr. President : — The gentleman who has so kindly entertained us 
with reminiscences of his early years in this place, in the course of his 
remarks respecting those who had the " task to teach " his "young 
idea how to shoot," alludes to one Sykes, as one of those who enjoyed 
so " delightful" a privilege ; and seems to infer, from the cut of the 
hair, that he was an ancestor of mine. Now sir, it is not my wish to 
leave any one laboring under an error of such magnitude ; and will 
therefore inform him, that while the individual he alludes to, and my 
humble self, have a common origin in one Victory, who favored this 
plantation with his aegis in 1680 ; it was his Lot, to originate from two 
Jonathans, results of that Victory ; while I claim a paternity in an 
Alexander's two Victory's, by Samuel, another consequence of the 
first Victory.* 

* Explanation. Victory Sykes settled in Suffield, in. 1680, had sons — 

I i 

Jonathan, born 1675 ; Samuel, born 1680; Victory, born 1689. 

I I 

Jonathan, born 170S; Victory, born 1712. 

I I 

Lot, born 1739; Victory, born 1758. 

i 

Lot, the teacher, bn. 1774; Alexander, born 1786. 
I 
Henry Alexander, the speaker. 



97 

But enough, let thus much suffice on this point ; I will now ask this 
audience to transport themselves, in imagination, back in time, to the 
commencement of the reign of our sovereign Lady Queen Anne, and 
we will endeavor to picture to our minds the appearance of some of the 
prominent features of this neighborhood, and perhaps introduce our- 
selves to some of the people in their homes of that day. 

And first let us look at High Street itself. We have before us a 
broad avenue, twenty rods in breadth, extending more than two milea, 
in a straight line, from north to south, bearing about twenty degrees 
west. We are not however, to imagine it to be flanked on either 
hand, with painted fences, protecting enclosures filled with fruit and 
ornamental trees ; on the contrary, the forest still stands upon its bor- 
ders, in some portions of its extent, and in some parts occupies its sur- 
face ; while the roadway is but a mere path, meandering among the 
stumps and bushes that still encumber the soil. Log fences inclose 
some of the cleared fields that present themselves to view, and many 
of those fields arc thickly studded with the huge stumps of trees that 
have recently been fallen, and not altogether removed. Our prospect 
is limited by the forest yet remaining, the borders of which prcesnt to 
our vision, serried ranks of trees, bare of foliage except at their very 
summit. A marsh covered with alders and other swamp bushes en- 
croaching far upon the street, presents its unsightly aspect, and holds 
the center of its sway near the place where now stands the spacious 
mansion lately owned and occupied by William Gay, Esq., deceased. 
Along the borders of the street, in irregular positions stand the dwell- 
ings of the pioneers of the town, entirely guiltless of paint, or other 
coloring, except what they take from their material, and the subdued 
tints of time. Some of them aspire to the aristocratic form of two 
stories, with two rooms in each story, and a lean-to back for the con- 
venience of culinary, and laundry operations. 

Sloping away to the east, north and south, for some forty rods from 
the summit of the elevated ground, before the burial place, lies a 
broad common, upon which since the destruction of the forest, has 
sprung up a luxuriant growth of shrubs. At the summit aforesaid is 
the Meeting House, an unique building, which if standing at the present 
time would be an object of curiosity. It was erected in the reign of 
King William (Prince of Orange) about two years previous to bis 
demise, and consequently has not yet received the bronzing tints of 
age. Let us picture to our minds this edifice in which our fathers 
13 



98 

worshiped for about fifty years, where Mr. Buggies preached, and 
Mr. Devotion and Dr. Gay were ordained. It is a building forty feet 
square and some twenty feet high to the eaves. The roof is in the 
form of an Egyptian pyramid, truncated at the top, around which 
there is a railing inclosing the flat. On each of the four sides of the 
roof stands a high, pointed gable of about twenty feet span at the base. 
There is a door at each of the three sides facing to the east, north, and 
south, and four windows in each of the four sides of the edifice, beside 
one in the center of the west side for the pulpit, and one in each of the 
four gables. The windows are glazed with quarries set in lead. En- 
tering the house at the eastern door, we have before us an aisle, lead- 
ing to the pulpit, at the west side, over which hangs in threatening 
aspect, a sounding board, bearing no very distant resemblance in its 
general outline, to the top of a Britannia tea-pot. At the right and 
left of the pulpit is a row of " flanker seats " so called, facing toward 
the north and south according to their relative position with respect to 
the pulpit. On each side of the central aisle, is a row of seats facing 
to the west, and an aisle at their outer ends, nest the north and south 
Walls of the room. Looking up, we find a gallery extending over 
about three fourths of the area of the house. Above this, at the level 
of the eaves of the edifice, we find a second gallery, which is lighted 
by the windows in the gables. The open area, in front of the galleries 
permits us to look far up the interior, and study the heavy carpentry of 
the roof. 

In the rear of the Meeting House are several grassy mounds, mark- 
ing the resting places of those whose labors here are ended. Among 
them is one covering the remains of Mr. John Younglove, and there, 
may also be seen those round-topped stones inscribed to the memory 
of John Lawton and his wife Benedick ; Esther, late wife of Captain 
Anthony Austin ; and Sarah, late wife of Thomas Stevens, all of which 
are still remaining. 

Now let us imagine a beautiful Sabbath morn in the early autumn 
of 1702, one hundred and fifty-six years ago. The looked for " red 
flag" is floating to the breeze from the top of the Church, notifying 
the people that the hour to assemble for worship has come, and they 
are beginning to appear along the street, bending their way towards 
the house of God. No wheel carriages are seen among the groups 
approaching, mostly on foot, but a few of the proprietors from the 
more distant grants are mounted on horseback, with their loving spouses 



99 

on pillions behind, while their sturdy children trudge along on foot 
beside them. They are mostly clad in home manufactured fabrics, 
(literally so.) The males in small clothes and hose, with long waist- 
coats, over which is thrown a loose tunic or coat, and wide brimmed 
hats to protect their heads. The females appear in substantial home- 
spun linsey-woolseys and checks; but although then, as now, hoops 
bore sway at the Courts of Europe, we believe few will be found here. 
As the groups approach, we see among them Lieut. John Pengilley 
with his wife Mary, Ebenezer Burbank and his wife Rebecca, and 
Jacob Adams with his wife Anna, accompanied by their sons and 
daughters ; from the ferry. Another group from Feather street ar- 
rives, and among them we see John Trumble and his wife Elizabeth, 
Walter Halladay and John Burbank Sen., with his son John Jr., and 
their wives Mehitabel and Mary. From the west comes Lieut. Joseph 
Harmon and his brother Nathaniel, with their wives Hannah and 
Mary, and their sons and daughters, a goodly number. From the 
north comes David Froe, Jonathan Taylor and his brother Samuel ; 
and from the south Capt. Anthony Austin, Edmund Marshall and 
John Rising with their families ; while approaching from the more im- 
mediate vicinity, among others, may be seen James King, Peter Roe, 
John Hanchet, Thomas Remington, Thomas and Samuel Granger, 
Samuel Kent, David and Jonathan Winchell, Mrs. Younglove, Corpo- 
ral Joseph Pumrey, Thomas Copley, George Norton, Samuel and. 
William Spencer, Thomas Huxley and Robert Old. Finally with 
grave but cheerful demeanor, the beloved pastor appears leading by 
the hand his child, Mercy, who bids fair to be a counterpart of her 
mother Mercy, whom the cares of a fast increasing, and rising family 
will not permit often to accompany her husband to the house of pub- 
lic worship. As he enters the pulpit, the congregation are hushed in 
silence, and stand in reverential deportment while the blessing of Al- 
mighty God is invoked upon their assembling. A psalm is given out 
to be sung from the version set to meter by Sternhold and Hopkins, 
and Goodman Sykes rises, sets the tune, reads a line and the congre- 
gation join in singing it, then another line is read and then sung ; 
thus they make melody in their hearts unto the Lord. Then their 
pastor leads them to the throne of grace, that they may feed in heav- 
enly pastures, and draw water from the wells of salvation. After the 
singing of another of the songs of Zion, he opens the Word of God, 
and breaks unto them the Bread of Life, endeavoring, in the Spirit to 



100 

divide unto each his portion in due season. The services of the morn- 
ing are closed with the benediction, and the people retire, many to 
their homes accompanied by some of their distant neighbors, while 
others gather in groups ; perhaps converse upon the merits of their 
new sovereign,* and discuss the probable results of the impending war 
with France, which soon became noted for the battle of Blenheim, in 
Europe, but caused anxiety and sorrow in the hearts of many here, at 
the destruction of Deerfield and the captivity and massacre of most of 
its inhabitants. 

We will now allow the wheels of time to move forward some two 
and a half years. The fierce winds of March are careering over the 
snow clad fields, and ringing- out their strong base in the neiohboring 

<D <D O CD CJ 

forest. In a low brown house nearly opposite the Meeting House is 
assembled a group consisting of a matronly appearing lady, somewhat 
advanced in the downhill of life, a man of about thirty-six years of 
age, and a robust young man of twenty-two years. These are Mrs. 
Sarah Younglove, the widow of Mr. John Younglove, and John, and 
Joseph, her first and last born sons. Her other sons, Samuel and 
James, and her surviving daughters, Mary, Hannah and Lydia, have 
all married, and are settled around her, in the neighborhood, while she 
and the two first named occupy the house built by the people of the 
town, for her husband, when he first came to be their minister. They 
are conversing upon the rumors of threatened disturbances from the 
northern Indians, when Sergeant Joseph Sheldon their next door 
neighbor comes in and informs them that news has just arrived, that 
the Indians, under the lead of a Frenchman, have attacked and de- 
stroyed Deerfield ; that they have killed and scalped a number of the 
inhabitants, and carried off in captivity nearly all the rest, among 
them young Joseph Eastman ■ and that his kinsman's house is the 
-only one left in the place, which was saved by timely discovery of the 
enemy, and the desperate bravery of its inmates, though Mrs. Sheldon 
was shot upon her bed. After the first shock which this information 
produced has in a measure subsided, and some remarks of commisera- 
tion for poor Joseph and his bereaved mother, Mrs. Younglove begins 
to relate reminiscences of her experience of Indian warfare at Brook- 
field in 1C75. 

Leaving them we will proceed up the street some three-fourths of a 

* Queen Anne. 



101 

mile from the meeting-house. On the east side of the way stands a 
house with its sharp-peaked gable facing toward the west. It is about 
twenty-eight feet long by twenty feet wide. The second story juts over 
the lower toward the street, some eighteen inches, and the gable projects 
over the second story. At each end of the lower projection hangs a cu- 
riously carved pendant. A chimney of ample proportions stands at the 
east end, and a door at the south side gives access to an entry, in which 
we find a stairway by the side of the chimney leading to the chambers. 
At the left hand is a door through which we pass to the only room on 
the first floor, but it is none of your six by eight boxes, to viciate the 
pure air and poison its inmates ; on the contrary there is room for the 
old fplk's to be at home by the ample fireside, and leave full scope for 
the young to play at hide and seek, or blind man's buff. The ceiling 
over our heads is constructed of huge moulded beams supporting lighter 
joists over which is laid a sheathing of boards forming both the ceiling 
of the room, and the floor of the chambers above. Time will not per- 
mit me to point out specifically the furniture, nor the contents of the 
china closet at the north side of the chimney. But let me introduce 
you to Goodman Sykes, the architect, builder and proprietor of the 
mansion ; he has just entered upon the fifty-sixth year of his age. This 
good lady is Mary, his third wife, and he is her second husband. These 
two young men are his sons Jonathan and Samuel, by his first wife 
Elizabeth (Burt) ; they were natives of Springfield, but were trans- 
planted into the wilds of Suffield in their infancy. They have not yet 
entered upon a wedded life, but the fair Mary Lane who lives across 
the street has entrapped the heart of Jonathan, and Samuel frequent- 
ly finds it convenient to stop at the^house of Goodman Hanchet which 
stands upon the knoll north of the alder swamp, where the blooming 
Mabel alias Mehitabel Hanchet may be found. This youth of fifteen 
is Victory Jr., the only surviving child of Goodman Sykes, by his 
second wife, Elizabeth (Granger) ; and the young maiden so engaged 
at her spinning is Mary Trumble, a daughter of Goody Sykes by her 
first husband, Judah Trumble ; and here is neighbor Quinton Stock- 
well, who resides at the opposite side of the way. Having heard the 
news of the disasters at Deerfield, he has come in to relate it, which 
having done, he as a matter of course in sympathetic feeling has been 
led into a narration of his own captivity at that place in 1677, and his 
adventures among the Indians in Canada ; and here, we must leave 
them, for time forbids our tarry ; we must obey its mandate and hasten 



102 

onward. Goodman Stockwell has long since closed the relation of his 
adventures. Goodman Sykes continued some four years after the 
events just adverted to, and was gathered to his fathers. His sons, and 
the maidens of their choice, joining hands, hearts, and fortunes, walked 
along the journey of life, reared their families, and passed away. But 
the old homestead ! It remained on that spot until about thirty years 
since, when the sacrilegious hand of modern improvement was laid 
upon it, and it was removed thence, and degraded to the ignoble office 
of a cattle shed, which office it still occupies at the homestead of Capt. 
Seth King, in North street, one of Suffield's independent farmers. 
The house of Mrs. Younglove has long since disappeared, nor left " a 
wreck behind." 

The Meeting House survived some alterations, many repairs and 
resolutions to build a successor, until the 25th of April, 1749, when 
it was laid prostrate. On the Sabbath following, (April 30,) public 
worship was held in the open air, the congregation seating themselves 
" on y e Timber," and the next Sabbath, worship was held at the house 
of Major (afterward Gen.) Phineas Lyman. The sills for a new 
Meeting House were laid May 8th, and the raising commenced the 
next day ; " y e Steeple " was raised the 22d of August following. 
This house was forty feet wide and fifty-seven feet long, extending 
from north to south parallel with the front of the burial ground. It3 
interior arrangement was similar to its predecessor, except that it had 
but one tier of galleries ; and the audience room had a ceiling instead 
of being open up to the roof. The steeple stood on the top of the 
house, at the north end. It was taken down in 1786, and was re- 
placed with a tower and spire built from the ground, whose combined 
height was about one hundred and thirty feet. It was designed, and 
built by Joseph Howard of Suffield, and was of beautiful proportions 
and thoroughly built. It might and ought to have been preserved, 
but the old house having become somewhat rickety, it was decided in. 
1835 to rebuild ; and spires being at that time unpopular, this was 
involved in ruin with the house. It was thrown down March 10th, 
1835, and the tower and house were demolished soon after. Its suc- 
cessor, the present house, was raised in June of that year. These 
three houses for public worship, the first erected in 1700, the second 
m 1749, and the present one in 1835, have successively occupied the 
same site. The first Meeting House erected in the town (of which the 
monument, this day inaugurated is a model, in its general outline,) 



103 

stood upon the Common, southeast of the site of its successors. It 
probably was built about 1680 and was removed in 1701. 

In 1085, a " red flag" was procured to haug out to notify the 
people of the hour for assembling. In 1710 a drum was purchased 
to use for that purpose, and in 1760, the Society voted to purchase a 
bell, which was brought into the town November 18th, 1761. 

This brings to remembrance the " black knight" of the bell, Ti,* 
with a brief notice of whom I will close. He was one of those whose . 
fortune it was to be born in bondage, in the house of Dr. Gay, yet 
knew nothing of the galling chains of slavery. There are many here, 
who can remember his glistening countenance, as he tolled the bell, 
with measured stroke, to the step of the good parson Gay ; and hia 
care to ring the last peal as Mr. Gay entered the pulpit door. With 
many will arise memories of loved ones, by whose open graves he 
stood, and carefully covered their coffins with earth, and then uncov- 
ered his head, a signal for the closing funeral ceremony. But he, too 
is gone, his remains have been laid in the ground with those for whom 
he had performed this last sad office. May they rest in peace, and his 
memory be cherished among the mementos of the past. 



The following original Hymn by S. Dryden Phelps, 
D. D., of New Haven, a native of Suffield, was sung in the 
tune of Old Hundred : — 

" Sweet, holy memories throng to-day 
The place where we rejoicing stand, 
Where lovely prospects stretch away 
O'er hill and vale on every hand. 

Not such in olden time the view, 

When first God's servants gathered here, 

The field and forest to subdue, 

And home, and church, and school to rear. 

Nobly they wrought — those stalwart men, 

Led on by him whose worthy name 
And earnest zeal, revived again, 

We give afresh to sacred fame. 

* Titus Kent. 



104 

Blest was the Pastor's early toil, 

Blest is the memory of the just ; 
Let sculptured column crown the soil 

Where sleeps serene, his honored dust. 

Virtue and faith survive the dead, 

Their fruits to wide results expand ; 
Sons of the sires have risen and spread 

Their leavening power throughout the land. 

Hither to-day these children come, 

To greet the scenes of other years, 
To taste again the joys of home, 

At loved ones' graves to drop their tears. 

God ! from Thee our treasures flow, 
From Thee, the present and the past; 

A parting blessing now bestow, 

And may we meet in Heaven at last !" 

The Benediction was pronounced by Rev. Henry 
Cooley. 

It is an interesting fact, that tlie tune (Old China), in 
which the opening hymn was sung, and the closing hymn r 
were each composed by a son of Suffield.* 

* Timothy Swan. 



105 



LETTERS 

OF PERSONS NOT PRESENT, IN REPLY TO INVITATIONS FROM THE 
COMMITTEE. 

Fort Atkinson, September 4, 1858. 

Mr. Norton — Very Dear Sir : — Your favor of the 27th ult., was 
received on Wednesday evening, but as I was in a neighboring town 
attending a convention of ministers, I have not seen it till this evening. 
I hasten to reply very briefly. 

I rejoice exceedingly to learn of your purposes and plans in the 
erection of a respectable monument to the memory of our honored an- 
cestor, who served the church and his generation so faithfully, and in 
so godly a manner, during his short pilgrimage on the earth, and who 
has now been a glorified saint in heaven for a hundred and fifty years. 
I most sincerely thank you for your invitation to be present with you 
on the 16th of the present month. Nothing of an earthly nature 
would be so gratifying to my feelings as to be able to comply with 
your request ; and nothing but the want of means prevents me from 
turning my face Suffield-ward without delay. But I am a superannu- 
ated missionary of very small means, and cannot command a sufficient 
sum of money to take me there, and return me back. My thoughts, 
my heart, my soul, will be with you, and it is hard to feel reconciled 
that my body will have to remain behind. I shall try, however, to 
say, not my will, but thine, Lord, be done. 

Some eight years since I set about tracing back the genealogy of 
the Euggles' family as far as I could, and was successful beyond my 
expectations. I will state in few words my line of descent from my 
great, great, great grandfather, which I am satisfied is perfectly correct. 

John Ruggles, a native of Nasing, Essexshire, England, with his 
wife Barbarie, left their country and kindred for the sake of freedom 
of conscience, and came to this, then new world, in the year 1634, in 
the same ship with Elliott, the missionary, to the Indians. They had 
then one child two years old, named John. They settled in Roxbury, 
Massachusetts. Benjamin Ruggles of Suffield was the son of this 
14 



106 

second John. Benjamin was educated at Cambridge, and graduated 
honorably when seventeen years of age. This was considered very 
young at that time ; but he was thought an uncommon youth. He 
was ordained in Suffield at the age of twenty-two, I think. I have 
the record, but it is at present loaned, I think, however, he was thirty- 
two when he died. He died in Suffield, greatly lamented, as he had 
been greatly beloved. He was undoubtedly buried by the side of his 
wife, Mercy, who died about a year and three months previous to him. 
They left seven children, five daughters and two sons — Mary, Benja- 
min, Joseph, Abigail, Ruth, Aphia, Tryphena. The mother died six 
days after the birth of Tryphena. Joseph was my grandfather. He 
was born in the year 1701, and died in 1791, aged just ninety years. 
He had fifteen children. My father, Samuel, was his youngest son, 
and lived and died at the homestead of his father in Brookfield, Con- 
necticut. He left nine children, of whom I am the youngest, and was 
just eight days old when my father died. He died at the age of forty- 
four, March 17, 1795. I am sixty-three years old, have four children, 
two sons and two daughters. 

I obtained my information partly from tradition, but mostly from 
church and town records, wills, deeds, &c, &c, in Boston, Roxbury, 
Cambridgeport, and Suffield. My Suffield informants are probably 
dead, as they were quite old when they gave the information. I could 
give more particulars of the two Johns, and of Thomas, an elder 
brother of John the first, who came over two years after, in 1636, but 
as I said, my documents are not by me at present. 

Please make my kind regards and love to all the descendants of my 
great grandsire, Benjamin Ruggles, who may gather at your place, and 
tell them, it would rejoice me greatly to mingle with them on the 16th. 
Should an account of your meeting be published, I would request that 
a copy may be sent me. or if it should not be published, will you be so 
kind as to inform me of its results. 

I am most sincerely yours, &c. 

SAMUEL RUGGLES. 



Brookfield, August 15, 1858. 
Dear Sir : — Your letter to Eli Ruggles came to my hands last 
evening. He has been dead eleven years, and most of his family have 



107 



left this place, or are deceased. I married his youngest sister some 
twenty years since. She was one of the first missionaries to the Sand- 
wich Islands, the wife of doctor Holman, who staid at the Islands some 
two years, and died in Bridgeport, some two or three years after his 
return. 

I am nearly eighty-two years old, and I rememher Joseph Ruggles, 
the first of the name who came to this place, and I helieve the first of 
three or four persons who settled here. As nearly as I rememher, he 
died not far from the heginning of this century, aged I helieve, ninety 
years. He was the son of the Rev. Benjamin Ruggles of Suffield — 
was deacon of the Presbyterian Church here for many years — was the 
father of fifteen children, by three wives, all of whom are now dead. 

Names of the children of Joseph Ruggles : 



Sarah, 


married 


David Smith. 


Benjamin, 


married 


Sarah Seely. 


Lois, 


(i 


Oliver Warner. 


Joseph, 


" 


Sarah Dunning. 


Rachel, 


« 


John Bishop. 


Lazarus, 


a 


Hannah Bostwick. 


Mercy, 


11 


Edmund Bostwick. 


Timothy, 


," 


Sybil Wooden. 


Mabel, 


it 


Reuben Bostwick. 


Ashbel, 


ii 


Rebecca Bostwick 


Lucy, 


t< 


Jonathan Starr. 


Elizabeth, 


(i 


Eli Segur. 


Anna, 


• ; 


William Phelps. 


Mary, 


a 


Nathan Merwin. 






Samuel, marriec 


Hukiah Waklee. 





Eli Ruggles to whom your letter was directed, was the eldest son of 
Samuel Ruggles, who was the youngest son of Deacon Joseph Ruggles. 

Samuel B. Ruggles of New York, (canal commissioner of the Erie 
canal,) is the grandson of Lazarus Ruggles, who was the third son of 
Deacon Joseph Ruggles — he can probably give some information rela- 
tive to the Rug-o-les race. 

DO 

Samuel Ruggles, father of my wife, was his youngest son, who died 
over sixty years since ; his son Samuel, who was, with my wife, one of 
the first missionaries to the Sandwich Islnnds, is now residing at Fort 
Atkinson, Wisconsin. He has, I am informed, all the documents re- 
quired, or that can he obtained from any of the descendants of Deacon 
Ruggles. His brother, Rev. Isaac W. Ruggles, who died a year or 
two since, and who resided at Pontiac, Michigan, had taken much pains 
to obtain the genealogy of the Ruggles family, and Samuel can probably 
obtain all the documents. 

The above is all I think of at present that can be interesting to you. 
Yours, &c, 

DANIEL TOMLINSON. 

Daniel W. Norton, Esq. 



108 

Buffalo, Sep'ember 13, 1858. 

Daniel W. Norton, Esq. — Sir : — Your favor of August 28, to- 
gether with a circular inviting nie to attend your celebration on the 
16th of September, was duly received. I immediately wrote to sev- 
eral of the Youngloves, but have not been able to write since until to- 
day. Some of the Younglove family will be with you on the 16th, — 
but my own bad health, and the condition of my family, will deprive 
me of the pleasure of mingling With the multitude which will undoubt- 
edly attend. 

My mother was a Younglove ; a great grand daughter of the Rev. 
John Younglove of whom you speak. The love which I bare her in- 
duced me to learn as much as possible about her ancestors, and the 
collateral branches of her family. Had my health been spared, I 
should have written for you something about the Youngloves, which 
would probably have been interesting to all of that name or lineage ; 
but I have not been able to do it, I will, however, simply remark that 
I have often referred to that family as a proof that the influence of 
pious ancestors, who not only profess religion, but live it, will be felt 
by their descendants for many generations. 
Very respectfully, 

Yours, &c, 

W. K. SCOTT. 



Hartford, September 7, 1858. 

Sir : — T have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of 
the 29th ult., inviting me to be present at Sufheld on Thursday the 
16th insl., and to join with you in the celebration. I should have 
noticed your polite invitation before, had I not been absent from home 
for the last ten days. 

It would give me much pleasure to meet you and my other friends in 
Sufhpld on that occasion. 1 had partially engaged to be at New 
Haven on Thursday the 16th, and if T. can excuse myself from going 
there, as I now think I can, I will do myself the pleasure of accepting 
the kind invitation of your Committee. I will go up in the nine 



109 

o'clock morning train to "Windsor Locks, and there take the stage to 

your place. 

I am with great respect, 

Your obedient servant, 

JULIUS CATLIN. 
S. B. Kendall, Esq. 



Norwich, September 4, 1858. 
S. B. Kendall, Esq. — Dear Sir : — Your favor of the 27th of Au- 
gust, was duly received, inviting me and my staff to participate in the 
exercises connected with the commemoration of the death of the first 
pastor of the Congregational Church in Suffield. 

I should be very happy to meet your citizens, as well as the sons 
and daughters of Suffield, who will then gather from all parts of our 
country, on an occasion of so much interest ; but I have an engage- 
ment for that and the. following day which must deprive me of that 
pleasure. 

I am very respectfully yours, 

WILLIAM A. BUCKINGHAM. 



Hartford, September 7, 1758. 
S. B. Kendall, Esq. — Dear Sir : — Your kind invitation to attend 
your approaching celebration on the 16th inst., is received. 

I regret to say I shall not be able to attend, as the term of the su- 
preme court commences here on the 14th inst. 
Accept my thanks. 

Yours with sincere respect, 

WILLIAM W. ELLSWORTH. 



East Windsor Hill, September 16, 1858. 
Rev. J. R. Miller — My Dear Sir : — I have just received your 
special invitation to be present at the public exercises in SufBeld to-day. 



110 

It was a happy thought on the part of the good people in Suffield to 
signalize this sixteenth day of September, 1858, in the manner set 
forth by your Committee of arrangements. Respecting the life and 
character of Rev. Benjamin Rugglcs, the first pastor of your church, I 
have little knowledge, but the tribute about to be paid to his memory, 
by an intelligent Christian people, is a warrant for the strong impres- 
sion which I have of his ministerial worth. Who can estimate aright 
the influence transmitted to successive generations in Suffield by the 
man of God whose virtues and toils are now gratefully recalled '? And 
what an incentive does this thought supply to us, entrusted as we are in 
our several spheres, with a work which borrows most of its significance 
from the distant future ! 

I regret that my associates, Drs. Vermilye and Lawrence, are out of 
the State at this time, and that it is impracticable for me to witness the 
joyful and instructive solemnity which the sons and daughters of Suf- 
field will never forget. May the God of their fathers be their God ! 
May those evangelical doctrines and institutions to which Connecticut 
and New England are so deeply indebted for all their solid advantages 
be maintained evermore in the favored town where your lot is cast ! 

With a grateful acknowledgement of the kind invitation extended to 
me by the Committee and yourself, 

I am yours sincerely, 

WILLIAM THOMPSON. 



Paterson, N. J., August 31, 1858. 
Mr. Daniel W. Norton. — Dear Sir : — I have just returned home 
after an absence of some days with my family, which must excuse the 
delay in my answer to your note of last week. It will afford me great 
pleasure to attend the interesting ceremonies in Suffield on the 10th 
of September next, and I shall esteem it an honor to take an active 
part in them. 

There is some uncertainty whether I can gratify my wish to be with 
you. The time happens to be exceedingly inconvenient for me. Rut 
I will make every effort, and if not disappointed will, in company with 
my wife and two sons, unite with you in the celebration of the day. 
Very truly yours, 

WILLIAM II. HORNBLOWER. 



Ill 

Utica, N. Y., August 26, 1858. 

Dear Sir : — Your circular and letter, conveying to me the informa- 
tion of your intended commemoration of the anniversary of the decease 
of your first pastor, has been duly received. The observance of that 
day will give favorable opportunity for a rare gathering of the scattered 
sons and daughters of old Suffield ; and they will without doubt avail 
themselves of it, and come bringing many a liberal offering both in 
mind and money, to aid in the accomplishment of your praiseworthy 
monumental enterprise — with many an eloquent word of pleasant mem- 
ories of " days of yore," to contribute to the interest of the occasion. 

I do deeply regret that circumstances will prevent my acceptance of 
your very polite and cordial invitation to attend, and mingle with you 
in the exercises and pleasures of the celebration. I can only tender to 
you my best wishes for the success of your efforts, and the hope that 
there may be a glorious reunion of friends and citizens from far and 
near to participate in the observances of the anniversary. 
With respectful regard, your obedient servant, 

JOHN YOUNGLOVE. 

D. W T . Norton, Esq. 



North Bennington, Vt., September 7, 1858. 
Dear Sir : — I received yours of August 29th, a day or two since, 
and hasten to thank you for your kind invitation to be present with 
you on the 16th. I am sorry that my engagements will not allow me 
to do so, as we have engaged to spend the next two or three weeks 
with our friends at Saratoga, and other places. We should feel much 
pleased in being with you on that occasion, if we could do so. 

I hope you will succeed in your enterprise of erecting a monument 
to the memory of He v. Benjamin Buggies. I shall be happy to hear 
of your success. 

Bcspcctfully yours, 

J. Y. BBECKENBIDGE. 
Mr. D. W. Norton. 



Cincinnati, August-29, 1858. 
My Dear Sir : — Owing to my absence for some weeks past, your 
kind letter of the 13th inst. did not come to my possession until this 



112 

morning. I am very thankful for the invitation it contains, to be pres- 
ent in my native town, on the interesting occasion mentioned in your 
letter, as also for the polite manner of its communication. 

For many years past it has been my settled purpose to visit the 
place of my birth, and look at the mouldering grave-stones of my an- 
cestors ; but heretofore circumstances have intervened to prevent it. 

It could not be otherwise than interesting to me to visit the place 
where I was born. I dare not now say that I can be present on . the 
occasion to which you refer. But for my recent protracted absence 
from home I would promise without hesitation to be with you on the 
lGth proximo ; but under existing circumstances, it is doubtful if I 
shall be able to enjoy that pleasure. If however, I can so arrange my 
business as to leave home I shall most gladly comply with your kind 
invitation. 

Hoping I may hear from you again, and often, 

I am truly yours, 

H. H. LEAVITT. 

Wm. L. Loomis, Esq. 



New York, August 24, 1858. 

Dear Sir : — Your favor of the 24th inst. containing enclosures for 
Messrs. Watt, Wright, and John I. Sherman, was duly received, and 
the notes delivered as you requested. Our legal vacation closes on 
the 1st September proximo, and my business engagements, which are 
just now somewhat urgent, will, much to my regret prevent my attend- 
ing the commemoration alluded to in your circukir. 

You will however, please present the thanks of myself and wife to 
the gentlemen comprising the Committee of correspondence for the 
compliment of their invitation, and also accept our acknowledgments 
personally for your courtesy and politeness. 

With our regards to yourself and family, I remain, 
Very respectfully and sincerely yours, 

C. A. SHERMAN, 

Rev. D. Hemenway. 



113 



New Haven, September 9, 1858. 

Dear Sir : — I herewith send you the ode I have written for the 
celebration next week. I am sorry not to have sent it sooner, but cir- 
cumstances prevented my doing so. It is longer than I intended it to 
be- The last verse but one may be left out if thought best. I have 
sent a copy of this ode to Mr. C. F. Loomis, who is to conduct 
the singing. He proposed that it be adapted to " Old Hundred," 
and I have written it for that tune. 

I hope I shall be able to attend the celebration. 

Yours truly, 

S. D. PHELPS. 
D. W. Norton, Esq. 



Hartford, September 9th, 1858. 
Rev. Mr. Miller — Dear Sir : — It would afford me great pleas- 
ure to be with you on the occasion mentioned in your kind note just 
received ; but there is to be a special meeting of the corporation of 
Yale College on that day for the transaction of important business, and 
my duty will require me to meet with them. The programme of exer- 
cises interests me much, and if well carried out, you cannot fail to 
have an interesting and profitable occasion. So may it be. 

Yours in Christ, 

J. HAWES. 



Brooklyn, N. Y., September 6, 1858. 
Gentlemen : — I have received your circular of invitation to attend 
the celebration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the 
death of the first pastor of the First Congregational Church in Suffield, 
Rev. Benjamin Ruggles, which is to take place on the 16th of 
September, 1858. 

I regret to say, that engagements, which I can neither perform in 
15 



114 

advance nor postpone, will deprive me of the great pleasure of being 
with you on that interesting occasion ; but, Providence permitting, 
Mrs. Sizer will be there to join with the sons and daughters of Suffield 
in those sacred festivities, and also to point out to our little son the 
graves of our ancestors, the Hales, the Nortons and the Remingtons, 
some of whom labored with, and most of whom now sleep by the side 
of the illustrious dead whose virtues you meet to celebrate, and over 
whose remains you purpose to embody your filial and pious affection in 
the form of a cenotaph. 

The settlements of New England were peculiar. Neither mineral 
wealth, commercial prosperity, nor ambition to wield a political scepter, 
tempted her pioneers to those rocky shores. They came to enjoy 
a free gospel and an equality of civil rights. Hence the minister 
and the teacher, the church and the school-house were made radical, 
central, and indispensable institutions in the framework of the new 
society. These constituted the focus and heart of the community, and 
to this day, not only in New England, but among New Englanders, 
who are scattered as noble pioneers for good all over the world, the 
family, the school, and the church — purity, education and piety, are 
paramount in their characters and prominent elements in the institu- 
tions which they planted. 

It is fitting, therefore, to meet for the purposes which call you to- 
gether, to commemorate the virtues, and to build a monument over the 
ashes of Benjamin Ruggles, the eminent New England minister and 
pioneer of liberty and law in the wilderness. 

God bless you, and prosper your laudable work ! 
Yours truly, 

NELSON SIZER. 

Rev. D. Hemenway, and others. 



City of Washington, August 26, 1858. 
Deak Sir : — I have received your kind invitation to be present at 
the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the decease of the Rev. 
Benjamin Ruggles. If it is possible I shall be present. Few will be 
present whose recollections can extend back farther than mine. I can 
distinctly remember the father of the late Rev. Ebenezer Gay in the 



115 

pulpit of the old church, with his great •white wig, about the year 1794 
being born myself August 24, 1788. 

It would give me great satisfaction to once more visit " Old Suf- 
field," and the graves of my parents. Remember me with sincere re- 
gard to all tbat remember me. 

Accept my sincere regard, 

CHAUNCEY BESTOR. 
Daniel "W. Norton, Esq. 



Hudson, Ohio, September 13, 1858. 

Gentlemen : — I am honored with an invitation through your circu- 
lar of the 27th of July last, accompanied with a polite request from 
my worthy friend Daniel W. Norton, Esq., to be present at Suffield on 
the 16th inst, to join you in celebrating the One Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary of the decease of the Rev. Benjamin Ruggles ; and though 
I regret to say that business relations will deprive me of that satisfac- 
tion, yet be assured that nothing would give me or my wife, who is a 
daughter of Suffield, greater pleasure than to participate in the festivi- 
ties of that occasion. 

Suffield had her full share in the early struggles and privations inci- 
dent to a new settlement, has maintained a healthy progress in all the 
elements of civilization and Christianity, and commended herself to the 
favorable consideration of enlightened men everywhere, by giving, in 
the persons of her children, the riches of her experience, enterprise and 
knowledge to almost every locality iu the union. Little as I am versed 
in her history, I know that Ohio still remembers with just pride a 
chief justice of our own supreme court, and a United States senator, 
(the latter, if I mistake not, being a descendant of the very person 
whose demise you commemorate,) together with many other distin- 
guished men who trace their nativity to Suffield ; and well may she 
point to her children in distant states and climes, and without arro- 
gance or ostentation challenge competition. 

The enterprise in which your church is engaged, is a noble one, and 
worthy of Suffield, and you have the united aspirations of myself and 
wife that it will meet with entire success ; and that your festival and 
its results may become in the hearts of residents and distant children 
new incentives to noble deeds, and additional instrumentalities in the 



116 

hands of Providence of a deeper and more lasting attachment to the 
land of then- origin. 

Be pleased to accept my highest esteem. 

VAN. B. HUMPHKEY. 
Rev. Daniel Hemenway, and others. 



Dayton, 0., September 9, 1858. 

Gentlemen : — Your invitation to be present at Suffield on the lGth 
inst., at the commemoration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniver- 
sary of the decease of the Rev. Benjamin Ruggles, the first pastor of the 
First Congregational Church, I received this morning. 

As a descendant, as you please to say, "of one of old Suffield's 
best sons, and also of the Rev. Mr. Devotion, who succeeded Mr. Rug- 
gles in the ministry " one hundred and fifty years ago, I should be re- 
joiced were it in my power to be with you on the very interesting occa- 
sion of the proposed commemoration. 

I admire and appreciate the attachment of the people of Sufiield to 
the memories of their forefathers, their careful preservation of the his- 
tory of their ancient town, and their far-reaching interest displayed in 
following over the earth as it were, those descendants of her early citi- 
zens, whose lot in life is not cast upon the pleasant banks of the Con- 
necticut, and to whom the time-honored tombs of Suffield are but a 
solemn yet pleasing remembrance. 

You attach us to you by links of sympathy, bearing from you to us, 
and back to you again, the kindliest, indeed I may say the most frater- 
nal feeling. I am daily reminded that ' ' old Suffield ' ' was the home of my 
American ancestors on the paternal side. My grandfather, Eliphalet 
King's two military commissions, one under " King George," signed 
before the breaking out of the Revolution, but the other dated January 
1st, 1776, from the Continental Congress and signed by John Han- 
cock, are framed with a silhouette likeness of grandfather in the upper 
portion, and adorn the walls of our parlor. On the fourth of July last, 
as they will be on each succeeding anniversary, they were encircled 
with beautiful evergreens and wreaths by the willing hands of my wife 
and daughter. I have also in my possession grandfather's revolution- 
ary musket, (officers at the time of that period carried muskets) of 



117 

English manufacture, the lock bearing date, " June 1762." It was 
captured from the British at the commencement of the Revolution, and 
is now in a good state of preservation. 

My father, Augustus King, as you are aware, was born in Suffield. 
He died on the 19th of September, 1856, aged seventy-two years. 
He was all that a man, a husband, a father, a good citizen and a chris- 
tian should be. A son can say no more. I enclose an account of his 
death, " written by his son-in-law to Mr. Putnam :" 

ACCOUNT. 

Dear Friend : — Caroline has just reminded me of a duty which 
ought to have been performed a few days ago, a mournful and yet 
delightful task. Your old friend, father King, has moved away from 
among us. He has gone to another world. For over fifty years he 
has been studying the history, and tracing the maps of a " brighter 
world." He became dissatisfied with this world of diurnal darkness 
and light, of pain and of death ; and for more than fifty years he has 
led a nomadic life, flaily seeking for green pastures ; but alas ! they 
were nowhere to be found upon earth. He had lived out the allotted 
days of man upon earth, with three years " grace." He left us on his 
birth-day, being exactly seventy-three years old. 

As he was about leaving he told us with feelings of enraptured de- 
light, that he had found another, yea, a heavenly world. The old man 
was young again. He smiled and rejoiced like a child, as he drew 
near his journey's end. "Oh!" said he, "what a lovely Savior I 
have found ; He is very near." 

Father King had been afflcted with bronchitis for a year, which 
finally terminated his life here. He was confined to his bed for three 
weeks, the last two he had to have some one with him all the time. 
Caroline stood by him unremittingly nineteen hours out of the twenty- 
four, the whole time, none of us could prevent her. On the night of 
the 19th we saw that he must soon leave us. At nine P. M., we all 
gathered around his bed. He was bolstered up straight ; calmly he 
looked around upon us ; not a word was said ; not a movement made ; 
all was calm and quiet as night. Here was a scene for Raphael ; his 
immortal pencil could not desire a grander scene. There sat the 
white-haired old man transformed into an angel. At the head on one 
side stood the sympathizing doctor ; near him Edward sat, leaning on 
the bed ; in the middle sat Rufus on the bed-side holding his father's 



118 

hand ; I leaned on the post at the foot ; at the other foot-post stood 
Edward's wife ; in the middle on the other side sat Caroline with her 
father's other hand in hers ; at the other head-post leaned an old friend, 
who had been with him several days. Stillness reigned supreme. 
We know the angels are here among us ; we know their errand ; we 
treat them with reverence. The old saint is the first to move. He 
withdraws his hand, and looks an invitation for me to come and bid 
him a long farewell. In like manner he withdrew his hand from mine, 
and so on till I thought all had parted with him. He looked for 
others : I thought of our two faithful servant girls that have been with 
us for several years. I sent for them ; they in like manner bid him a 
long farewell, still not a word was spoken. He then shut his eyes 
and breathed less and less. I took his hand and looked at him closely. 
Not a muscle moved ; not a sigh, or an inhalation to disturb the beauty 
of the scene. Less and less became the movement of his breast, until all 
was still ! The angels stole him away when my eyes, when all eyes 
were fixed upon him, and we knew not the moment that he departed 
with them. Never did a babe go more quietly to sleep on its mother's 
bosom, than did father King on the bosom of his Savior. 

We laid him, in the same vault by his wife. She had been there 
thirteen winters waiting for him. They now sleep together on earth. 
They now sing together in heaven. Your Friend, . 

Please accept my acknowledgements for your kind invitation, and 
think of me as one who never forgets his Suffield descent, and who is 
always deeply interested in all that concerns " Old Suffield" and its 
people. In your midst, for almost hundreds of years, have reposed the 
remains of my ancestors, and I recur to the fact with an almost Indian- 
like feeling of regard for the spot where they lie. That the people of 
Suffield may always be what the people of Suffield have always been — 
Christian, loving, generous and patriotic, fit guardians of their honored 
dead, and fit tutors and exemplars to their children, is my earnest wish 
in their behalf. 

Very truly yours, 

EDWARD A. KING. 

Rev. Daniel Hemenway, and others. 



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